OF SEA-WATER IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE OCEAN. 
243 
cannot have that influence it has in the open ocean, we observe differences which show 
the influence of the land upon the constituent parts of the sea-water. This want of 
chemical combination between different salts will become more evident when, instead 
of comparing their different quantities, we compare the relative number of their equi- 
valents. The mean quantity of the different substances in the whole ocean, as deduced 
from the mean of regions I., II., III., IV., V., XI., XII., XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, 
XVII, is in 1000 parts of sea-water, — 
Chlorine. 
18-999 
Sulphuric acid. 
2-258 
Lime. Potash. Magnesia. 
0-556 0-367* 11-03 
All salts. 
34-404 
Coefficient. 
1-811 
Sulphuric acid. 
11-88 
Chlorine =100. 
Lime. Potash. Magnesia. 
2-93 1-87* 11-03 
All salts. 
181-1 
Chlorine. 
429 
Proportion of Equivalents. 
Sulphuric acid. Lime. Potash. 
45 16 6 
Magnesia. 
82. 
There is one question which deserves a closer examination, viz. how the salts that 
now constitute the water of the sea came into it X Is it the land that forms the sea, or 
is it the sea that makes the land X Are the salts that now are found in sea-water washed 
out of the land by the atmospheric water X Has the sea existed from the beginning of 
the earth X and has it slowly but continually given its elements to form the land X 
To try to give an answer to these most important questions, let us suppose that any 
river, for instance the Rhine, had its outlet into a valley with no communication with 
the sea, it would be filled with water until its surface was so great, that the annual 
evaporation was equal to the quantity of water which the river carried into it ; then there 
would be a physical equilibrium but no chemical, because all the water that was carried 
into the lake would contain different mineral substances, which the rain-water had dis- 
solved from the country which the river drains, while the loss by evaporation would be 
pure water. The quantity of saline substances in the lake would constantly go on 
increasing until chemical changes would occasion the precipitation of different salts. 
By comparing the chemical constitution of the water of the Rhine, we might form an 
idea of the different elements contained in the water of this lake. We should find that 
among the bases the lime was prevailing, and next to it the magnesia, next to it the 
soda, the iron, the manganese, the alumina, and potash. Of acids the carbonic would 
be prevailing, and next to it the sulphuric, the muriatic (chlorine), and the silicic. 
Now all these substances are found in sea- water, but the proportions are quite different. 
* The potash which I have mentioned here represents in fact not the mean of all the observations in the 
great ocean, but only the mean of a number of determinations for the northern part of the Atlantic, my older 
observations on the quantity of potash in the other parts of the ocean being not exact enough. This quantity 
of potash differs most probably very little from the real mean. 
MDCCCLXV. 2 L 
