Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/265

Rh of the sea as though they were in a bottle, and which, in the course of time, mingle those that are in one part of the ocean with those that are in another as thoroughly and completely as it is possible for a man to do in a vessel of his own construction. This fact as to uniformity of components appears to call for the hypothesis that sea water which to-day is in one part of the ocean, will, in the process of time, be found in another part the most remote. It must, therefore, be carried about by currents; and as these currents have their offices to perform in the terrestrial economy, they probably do not flow by chance, but in obedience to physical laws; they no doubt, therefore, assist to maintain the order and preserve the harmony which characterize every department of God's handywork, and as such we treat them.

465. Arguments afforded by corallines in favour of.—This hypothesis about currents is based upon our faith in the physical adaptations with which the sea is invested. Take, for example, the coral islands, reefs, beds, and atolls with which the Pacific Ocean is studded and garnished. They were built up of materials which a certain kind of insect quarried from the sea water. The currents of the sea ministered to this little insect—they were its hod carriers. When fresh supplies of solid matter were wanted for the coral rock upon which the foundations of the Polynesian Islands were laid, these hod-carriers brought them in unfailing streams of sea water, loaded with food and building materials for the coralline. The obedient currents, therefore, must thread the widest and the deepest seas, for they never fail to come at the right time, nor refuse to give place and go after they have ministered to the hungry creature. Unless the currents of the sea were employed to carry off from this insect the waters that have been emptied by it of their lime, and to bring to it others charged with more, it is evident the little creature would have perished for want of food long before its task was half completed. But for currents, it would have been impaled in a nook of the very drop of water in which it was brought forth; for it would have soon secreted the lime contained in this drop, and then, without the ministering aid of currents to bring it more, it would have perished for the want of food for itself and materials for its edifice; and thus, but for the benign currents which took this exhausted water away, there we perceive this emptied drop would have remained, not only as the grave of the little architect, but as a monument in attestation of the shocking monstrosity that