Matthew Fontaine Maury, Lieutenant, U.S.N.

“ Thus, when we consider the salts of the sea in one point of view, we see the winds and the marine animals operating upon the waters, and, in certain parts of the ocean, deriving from the solid contents of the same those very principles of antagonistic forces which hold the earth in its orbit, and preserve the harmonies of the universe. ”

“ The better to comprehend how such creatures may influence currents and climates, let us suppose the ocean to be perfectly at rest — that throughout, it is in a state of complete equilibrium — that, with the exception of those tenants of the deep which have the power of extracting from it the solid matter held in solution, there is no agent in nature capable of disturbing that equilibrium — and that all these fish, &c., have suspended their secretions, in order that this state of a perfect aqueous equilibrium and repose throughout the sea might be attained. ”

“ Seeing, then, that the inhabitants of the sea, with their powers of secretion, are competent to exercise at least some degree of influence in disturbing equilibrium, are not these creatures entitled to be regarded as agents which have their offices to perform in the system of oceanic circulation, and do not they belong to its physical geography? ”

“ It may therefore be supposed that the arrangements in the economy of nature are such as to require that the various kinds of marine animals, whose secretions are calculated to alter the specific gravity of sea water, to destroy its equilibrium, to beget currents in the ocean, and to control its circulation, should be distributed according to order. ”

“ The vapor is taken from the surface water; the surface water thereby becomes more salt, and, under certain conditions, heavier; when it becomes heavier, it sinks; and hence we have, due to the salts of the sea, a vertical circulation, viz., a descent of heavier — because salter and cooler water from the surface, and an ascent of water that is lighter — because it is not so salty from the depths below. ”

“ As the salts are emptied into the sea, these creatures secrete them again and pile them up in solid masses, to serve as the bases of islands and continents, to be in the process of ages upheaved into dry land, and then again dissolved by the dews and rains, and washed by the rivers away into the sea. ”

“ In like manner, the constituents of the atmosphere, whether it be analyzed at the equator or the poles, are the same. By cutting off and shutting up from the general channels of circulation any portion of sea water, as in the Dead Sea, or of at mospheric air, as in mines or wells, we can easily fill either with gases or other matter that shall very much affect its character, or alter the proportion of its ingredients, and affect the health of its inhabitants. ”

“ There is something suggestive, both of the grand and the beautiful, in the idea that, while the insects of the sea are building up their coral islands in the perpetual summer of the tropics, they are also engaged in dispensing warmth to distant parts of the earth, and in mitigating the severe cold of the Polar winter. ”

“ For instance: when we come to an arm of the sea, as the Red Sea (§ 238) , upon which it never rains, and from which the atmosphere is continually abstracting, by evaporation, fresh water from the salt, we may naturally expect to find a greater proportion of salt in the sea water that remains than we do near the mouth of some great river, as the Amazon, or in the regions of constant precipitation, or other parts where it rains more than it evaporates. ”

“ Passed Midshipman S. P. Griffin, who commanded the brig Rescue in the American searching expedition after Sir John Franklin, informs me that, on one occasion, the two vessels were endeavoring, when in Baffin’s Bay, to warp up to the northward against a strong surface current, which of course was setting to the south; and that while so engaged, an iceberg, with its top many feet above the water, came “drifting up” from the south, and passed by them “like a shot.” ”

“ In the clock-work of the ocean and the machinery of the universe, order and regularity are maintained by a system of compensations. A celestial body, as it revolves around its sun, flies off under the influence of centrifugal force ”

“ Now, unless the currents of the sea had been employed to carry off from this insect the waters that had 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. ”

“ The makers of nice astronomical instruments, when they have put the different parts of their machinery together, and set it to work, find, as in the chronometer, for instance, that it is subject in its performance to many irregularities and imperfectionsthat in one state of things there is expansion, and in another state contraction among cogs, springs, and wheels, with an increase or diminution of rate. ”

“ Upon this supposition — the like of which nature warrants throughout her whole domain — we may conceive how the marine animals of which we have been speaking may impress other features upon the physical relations of the sea by assisting also to regulate climates, and to adjust the temperature of certain latitudes. ”

“ This under Polar current water, then, as it rises to the top, and is brought to the surface by the agitation of the sea in the Arctic regions, gives out its surplus heat and warms the atmosphere there till the temperature of this warm under current water is lowered to the requisite degree for going out on the surface. ”