NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
955 
The source of the salts existing in sea water is rock-substance which has been dis- 
integrated and decomposed by atmospheric influences. The soluble components or 
products washed out by the rain, and collected in the streams and rivers, are eventually 
carried into the sea. Here the water is subjected to the action of the sun and winds, 
which causes it to evaporate, leaving the salts behind. A great quantity of the vapour 
so formed is carried inland, and condensed on the mountains, washing out the rock and 
taking up a fresh charge of solid matter which it carries down into the sea, which is thus 
the great receptacle of degraded land. As it is known that all rivers, at present, hold 
more or less solid matter in solution, the sea must be continually becoming salter, and 
must have been always doing so, unless the organic and physical processes by which 
salts are removed from the ocean should be so active as to counteract the tendency to 
Table V. — Slioiving the Total Saline Contents of Waters of different Densities. 
Density at 60° F. 
Total Salts 
in Grammes per 
Kilogramme. 
Density at 60° F. 
Total Salts 
in Grammes per 
Kilogramme. 
Density at 60° F. 
! 
Total Salts 
in Grammes per 
Kilogramme. 
1-02500 
33-713 
1-02600 
35-015 
1-02700 
36-315 
510 
•843 
610 
T45 
710 
•445 
520 
•973 
620 
•275 
720 
•575 
530 
34-103 
630 
•405 
730 
•705 
540 
■234 
640 
•535 
740 
•835 
550 
•364 
650 
•665 
750 
•965 
560 
•494 
660 
•795 
760 
37-096 
570 
•624 
670 
•925 
770 
•226 
580 
•754 
680 
36 055 
780 
•356 
590 
•884 
690 
T85 
790 
•485 
assumption that the atmosphere is the only active agent, and has always contained 0’0003 of its volume of carbonic acid. 
From Herschel’s estimate of the total mass of the atmosphere, I calculate that the total carbonic acid of the atmosphere 
amounts to 2 - 277 x 10 12 tons (1 tQn=1000 kilogrammes). 
“From the oceanometric data of Boguslawski, on the other hand, I calculate that the total loose base is equivalent 
to 160 x 10 12 tons of carbonate of lime. Hence, assuming (1) the present oceanic carbonate to be on the average 
R"0. 1JC0 2 , the total loose C0 2 in the ocean amounts to 35'2 x 10 12 tons, or to 15'5 times that contained in the atmosphere. 
And, assuming (2) the present oceanic carbonates to be on the average R"0.1fC0 2 , its total loose carbonic acid amounts 
to 52 -8 x 10 12 tons, or to 23'2 times that contained in the atmosphere. 
“ I am, on the whole, inclined to think that of the two numbers, 15'5 and 23'2, the latter comes nearer to the actual 
value, and, pending further experiments and observations, I assume that, taking the carbonic acid of the atmospliere = l, 
that of the ocean is (not far removed from) 
(15-5 x 23-2) 
= 19-4.” 
2 
