COBAL ISLANDS. 
25 
I • *? 0 °wing question is one that the uneducated often asks 
1 ,USe i i" 'th° u t being able to find a satisfactory answer; and the 
Dec ave n °f beeu more fortunate in their interrogations : Whence 
es t e salt and other substances held in solution in the ocean ? In 
ier terms, what is the cause of the saltness of sea water ? 
°T take ddight ’ very foolishly, in satisfying childish 
y . • 81 ^ ariswe rs. Born near the shores of the Mediter- 
T D ’ T'!! lthe seaahvay3 ],cfore my eyes > I once, when quite a child, 
, U!SS,J( ! 1 f question to those who were near mo. Some persons, 
o pretended to be very clever, told me that the sea was salt, 
o ' . Ce ? m u v? S ^ Clmrge<1 t0 tW into it regularly large 
P umids of salt hke those we see heaped up on the banks of our 
alt-p, ts. It is not irreverent to say that the theories presented 
t0 T Unt £or the saltness of tbe *» •» not much 
r s wer P V P nr pose than the naive explanation with which I was 
answered m my childhood. Some of them, indeed, state that the salt 
the S SP ° ntane0U8ly at the bottom of the sea; others, that 
turn Wk to ti n T T S1,ffiCient t0 Bupply lt ' If onr readers will 
turn back to the first tew pages of “The World before the Delime ” 
they will understand the very simple geological explanation that" we 
watm° mg t0 81Ve ° f tLe 0ngb ° f diffCTent substances dissolved hi sea 
m Se ' 1 1 &8t , StaSf ; 0f ° U . r planet > **» the watery vapours contained 
m the primitive atmosphere were condensed, and before they had 
eSh con 7 ^ “ tte f ° rm of boilin S rain > the shell of the 
erne solu 1 “7 if ”*** tctel '°o™us mineral substances, 
IT r m water, others not. When rain fell on the burning sur- 
TtaL fvf b ’ tb * beCame chargedwitL a » A* soluble 
ST Tlf r reUmt€d ^ aft6rWards deposited ; accumu- 
la ng m the large depressions of the soil. The seas of the primitive 
globe were thus formed of rain water, holding in solution all that the 
earth bad given up, collected in large basins. Chlorideof sodium, sul- 
phates of soda, magnesia, potassium, lime, and silicium, in the form of 
solubles^cate; ma word, every soluble matter that the primitive globe 
r £i Tf /"d P art of tb< - ln,Ilei 'b contingent of this water. If we 
lawstf 1 T S f tme UP t0 the present day none of tbe general 
< of nature have changed— if we consider that the soluble substances 
contained m the water of the primitive seas have remained Z" 
