Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/288

262 deliver it back to the sea as fresh water; leaving the salts it contained in a solid state behind. These are operations that have been going on for ages; proof that they are still going on is continually before our eyes; for the "hard water" of our fountains, the marl-banks of the valleys, the salt-beds of the plains, Albion's chalky cliffs, and the coral islands of the sea, are monuments in attestation. These masses of solid matter have been secreted from the sea waters; they express the ability of these creatures to prevent the accumulation of salts in the sea.

491. Their antiquity.—There is no proof, nor is there any reason for the belief, that the sea is growing salter or fresher. Hence we infer that the operations of addition and extraction are reciprocal and equal; that the effect of rains and rivers in washing down is compensated by the processes of evaporation and secretion in taking out. If the sea derived its salts originally from the rivers, the geological records of the past would show that river beds were scored out in the crust of our planet before the sea had deposited any of its fossil shells and infusorial remains upon it. If, therefore, we admit the Darwin theory, we must also admit that there was a period when the sea was without salt, and consequently without shells or animals either of the silicious or calcareous kind. If ever there was such a time, it must have been when the rivers were collecting and pouring in the salts which now make the brine of the ocean. But while the palaeontological records of the earth, on one hand, afford no evidence of any such fresh- water period, the Mosaic account is far from being negative with its testimony on the other. According to it, we infer that the sea was salt as early, at least, as the fifth day, for it was on that day of creation that the waters were commanded to "bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life." It is in obedience to that command that the sea now teems with organisms; and it is marvellous how abundantly the obedient waters do bring forth, and how wonderful for variety as well as multitude their progeny is. All who pause to look are astonished to see how the prolific ocean teems and swarms with life. The moving creatures in the sea constitute in their myriads of multitudes one of the "wonders of the deep."

492. Insects of the sea—their abundance.—It is the custom of Captain Foster, of the American ship Garrick, who is one of my most patient of observers, to amuse himself by making drawings in his abstract log of the curious animalculae which.