20 Idylls of the King-London Review, Récamier, Jean-Françoise-Julie-Adelaïde, 250 Irving, Washington, Death of, 295 139 286 William, Prince of Orange,. 273 King, the, and the Goose-Herd-Leisure Hour, 55C Wellesley, Arthur, Tomaseo, 160 Idylls of the King. By Alfred Tennyson, 28. 53. Nature and the Supernatural, as together constitut- 155-156 British Novelists and their Styles. By David Mas- son, 123. 155, 158 Ceylon: an Account of the Island, Physical, His- 159-160 151-152 154 The Senses and the Intellect. By Alexander Bain, 203; 321. 147 The Rise of the Dutch Republic: a History. By 153 160 161 The Secret History of the Austrian Government F Bychology, Bain's-Edinburgh Review, 203; 321 Légende des Siècles. By Victor Hugo, 509. PROBABLY many a Malthusian, on glancing at a terrestrial globe and observing the vast space which is allotted to the ocean, has testily exclaimed: "For what purpose does all this fluid exist? Here are we, poor mortals, with insatiable stomachs our numbers increasing with frightful rapidity-our acres incapable of expansion-our agriculturists unable to make two blades of corn grow in the room originally required for one-our prospects, in fact, becoming so melancholy, that sooner or later people must make up their minds to eat little boys and girls in *The Physical Geography of the Sea. By M. F. MAURY, LL.D., U.S.N., Superintendent of the National Observatory. London: Sampson Low. New-York: Harpers. 1847. VOL. XLIX.-No. 1. OF THE SEA.* order to obtain food and keep the population within manageable bounds; yet, wanting all the accommodation we can get, not less than three fourths of the planet have been laid under water-some of its finest plains are swamped, and its most fertile valleys converted into liquid wastes!" Not so fast, however, good Mr. Malthusian! No one can explain why this particular proportion between the land and the ocean has been prescribed. It is precisely one of those points in the Divine arithmetic with which we are incompetent to deal. But sufficient may be inferred from the exquisite working of the great physical machinery of creation to satisfy us that he who weigheth the waters in the 1 hollow of his hand, and who fixeth bounds | whether its atmosphere could be moderfor the sea that it shall not pass, has ately refreshed and its meadows adeadjusted the fluid and solid surfaces of quately irrigated, if the surface of the our globe with as much care as he has great nursery of vapor were seriously mixed the chemical constituents of the curtailed? atmosphere, or settled the relative numbers of the two sexes. Grant that our mournful friend, who looks with such a jealous eye upon those liquid expanses, could brush them from their beds, and convert the whole earth into dry ground, what would be the result? Why, the world would wither at once with drought. The fair face of nature, still as fresh and blooming as in her infant days, would contract in ghastly wrinkles, and the comeliest landscapes grow cadaverous with premature age. Such, then, being the primary object of the ocean, see how beautifully its composition qualifies it for this end. What other fluid could be substituted with the smallest success? Would any of our acids answer the purpose required? Clouds dropping oil of vitriol, or showers consisting of muriatic acid, would soon burn up all vegetation and blister every landscape on the globe. With Atlantics of turpentine or Pacifics of train oil, not an herb would grow for the nourishment of cattle, nor a tree for the use of the carpenter. For many reasons, too, a change in the character of the ocean fluid would be highly detrimental to the interests of man. Considering the sea simply as a highway for our ships, any alteration in its specific gravity, or in the cohesive relationship of its particles, would affect all our maritime operations; for how could vessels float in a thin liquid like naphtha, or cruise in a heavy one like quicksilver, or plow their way through a viscid one like tar or treacle? Ransack the whole list of existing fluids, and not another could be found to supply the place and perform the multifarious duties of water. As matters now stand, have we not numerous deserts dispersed over the surface of the globe-spots of barrenness and death, where the pulse of the planet can not be felt, and where its life-blood apparently ceases to circulate? These seem to show that the earth is not overdone with water, and that, spite of the vast acreage of the ocean, there are tracts of land which its vapor can not reach, and certainly can not drench. When a wind, charged with moisture, sets out on its travels over a continent, it gradually deposits its freight as it proceeds; and should it encounter a range of tall mountains, the cold at their chilly tops extracts the hu- But the liquid which fills the vast ocean midity in the shape of snow, leaving the tanks is not pure. It contains, in general, breeze to pursue its course beggared of from three to three and a half per cent the fatness which the soil demands. of saline ingredients. To these, latterly, There are countries where showers rarely philosophers have begun to assign very fall, because the intervening regions steal considerable importance in the economy all the vapor which the prevailing winds of the great deep. They are not chance obtain from the ocean exchequer. Peru items in its waters, but elements of prois notoriously in this predicament. Jup- found significance, seeing that they reguiter Pluvius is unknown in that, ality. late its issues of vapor and guide its The south-east trades, which first movements from the equator to the poles. sprinkle the shores of Brazil, a The saline materials consist of chloride of feed the large streams of South-America, sodium, cloride of magnesium, sulphate afterwards rush up the slopes of the of lime, sulphate of magnesia, and other Andes in a state of comparative poverty, mineral compounds, the first of these preand finally tumble over into the land of ponderating to such a degree, that for the Incas in a condition of real hygromet- most purposes we are content to regard ric insolvency. Upon similar grounds the the ocean simply as a reservoir of common existence of Saharas in Africa, Asia, Aus- salt. Nor should we forget to remark, tralia, and North-America may be ex- en passant, for it is certainly worthy of plained. Looking, indeed, at these barren being ranked amongst the noticeable harpatches, and assuming that other physical monies of nature that the substance circumstances continued the same, we which is most largely diffused through the may well ask whether the world could be sea is precisely the condiment which kept in working order-whether its rivers man's instinct has taught him to employ and lakes could be sufficiently supplied-most extensively on land. The quantity hen appear to intimate that what it is now, such it has been throughout the whole historic period at least. We can scarcely suppose that the entire amount of salt has been wrung out of the land, for, taking the average depth of the waters at two miles only, it is calculated that there is enough chloride of sodium in the sea to cover a continent measuring seven millions of square miles to the depth of one mile. Shafhäut computed that the mineral matter suspended in the ocean was equal to double the Himalayas in bulk. Yet this mass is diffused throughout the abyss without increasing its volume, for soluble substances pack into the interstices of fluids, as odds and ends of luggage do into the crevices of a carpet-bag until the mysterious point of saturation is reached. varies according to circumstances and has gradually acquired its present charge, locality. It is less in inland seas, for ex-is a point which may be yet open to disample, than in the main ocean, because cussion; but there are many reasons which the rush of river water into these basins serves to keep them in a fresher condition, particularly if the outlets are few and contracted. Exception, however, must be made in favor of the Mediterranean, but the superior temperature of that splendid sheet, and consequently the greater concentration which is given to its brine, will explain the result. It is less, again, towards the poles, where snow and ice are such chronic phenomena; and the same observation applies to those humid portions of the tropics where umbrellas and mackintosh capes are peculiarly required. Humboldt ascertained that the charge of salt was greatest between the fifteenth and the twenty-fifth degrees of north and south latitude. Forchhammer discovered that the ocean became softer in this particular as land was approached -a circumstance, indeed, which we might expect, considering that the river gods are always pouring large contributions into the main. Marcet concluded that the seas of the southern hemisphere are fresher than those of the northern, and that if necessity compelled you to choose between the Atlantic and Pacific in regard to their potable qualities, you would find the latter much more to your taste than the former. There are certain landlocked expanses which receive as much fresh liquid as the streams will supply, but make it a point never to disgorge; and consequently-true emblems of niggardly, selfish souls-their waters become bitter and unblessed. The saline elements are left to accumulate as the vapor is carried off by the winds; and thus we have surly and inhospitable seas like the Aral and Caspian, or that still more ill-omenedeket of water clear of corruption." mere, the Lake Asphaltites. If, however, the quantity of these ingredients varies, their quality and relative proportions are singularly uniform. Bearing in mind that the soluble matters of the land are constantly washed into the ocean, and that each river carries its own particular contingent to the deep, we might expect that a more mongrel fluid would result. But every where the water seems to yield the same species of salts when dissected by the chemist's art. Their origin is still a question of much mystery. Whether the existing ocean was produced in a brackish condition, or And what is the use of so much salt? The answer to this question has generally been that it is intended to preserve the Great Profound from putrefaction. The sea is a huge pickle. But this explanation is by no means satisfactory. For, in the first place, stagnant sea-water is subject to corruption, and when voyagers have been caught in a calm and forced to lie idle on the ocean for weeks together, they have seen all sorts of "slimy things" crawl forth from the abyss, or, as Sir Richard Hawkins relates, "the sea was so replenished with several sorts of gellyes, and forms of serpents, adders, and snakes as seemed wonderfull; some greene, some blacke, some yellow, some white, some of divers colours, and many of them had life. So much so," continues that ancient mari "that a man could hardly draw a Salt, therefore, will not prevent decomposition, if the waves are permitted to sleep. Further, provision appears to be made in other ways for the removal of the decaying matter which may be poured into the great marine cesspools. To say nothing of chemical operations, the sea is peopled by crowds of microscopic animals, which banquet in a great measure upon the refuse organisms of the land; and these become food in their turn for the bulkier denizens of the deep. Whole legions of infusoria go down into the caverns of the whale at a single gulp. Patches of white or colored water, stretch |