Sea air

“ A bank of clouds, slate colored, and fringed with an ominous yellow, had gathered in the west, and there was a moaning in the air as though a far-off wind were sending a message to those in peril to beware of its breath.
The sea, too, had a glassy look. The big waves rose sullenly, and sank back into troughs, with an oily smooth motion as though they resented being thus confined. It was like the action of some raging beast in leash. There was a curious oppressiveness in the air, too, and more than one found difficulty in breathing. ”

“ Beneath it lay the sea, like a copper shield, smooth and glowing, seething like a boiling caldron, with its level foam, for the long, low-rolling billows lifted themselves but lazily from Ocean's breast, and assumed no distinctness of form or motion. Not the faintest breeze came to relieve the stifling closeness of the atmosphere, or lift the collapsed sail, or furled flag, that clung around our mast. The air shimmered visibly around us, as though undergoing some transformation from the heat, some culinary process, through which it was to be rendered unfit for human lips to breathe. ”

“ As the wind, wandering over the sea, takes from each wave an invisible portion, and brings to those on shore the ethereal essence of ocean, so the air lingering among the woods and hedges—green waves and billows—became full of fine atoms of summer. ”

“ Were the salts of the sea lighter instead of heavier than the water, they would, as they feed the winds with moisture for the cloud and the rain, remain at its surface, and become more niggardly in their supplies, and finally the winds would howl over the salt-covered sea in very emptiness, and, instead of cool and refreshing sea-breezes to fan the invalid and nourish the plants, we should have the gentle trade-winds coming from the sea in fitful blasts of parched, and thirsty, and blighting air. ”

“ The ocean air is delightful and invigorating, the sky a perfect azure, and the translucent waves with their foamy edges stretch away in long beautiful curves. We feel the heart throbs of old Neptune, as the waters plash softly over the steamer’s sides, and we speed steadily forward, with the rush and swish of the sea sounding in our ears with a wild sweet melody all its own. To fall asleep on deck amid these charming conditions is delightful indeed. But how quickly the scene changes. ”

“ When night comes, however, then the land loses its heat very quickly, because it has not stored it up and the land-air grows cold; but the sea, which has been hoarding the sun-waves down in its depths, now gives them up to the atmosphere above it, and the sea-air becomes warm and rises. ”

“ Under this head I shall not only consider the natural state of the air of the atmosphere in point of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, purity and corruption, but also the different artificial impregnations of it from the holds or other parts of a ship, or from the persons of men who have been neglected in point of cleanliness.
The common air of the atmosphere at sea is purer than on shore, which gives to a sea life a very great advantage over a life at land. ”

“ To fill up the vacuum thus occasioned, the cool sea-air rushes in, producing a westerly breeze, adverse to vessels sailing to America; and the mariner, long before he perceives any continent, is made sensible of the effects of its heat-radiating sands. ”

“ It possesses all the virtue of the sea air without the moisture which ultimately loosens the joints, and seems to penetrate to the very nerves. Those who desire air and quick recovery should go to the hills, where the wind has a scent of the sunbeams. ”

“ The sea air is, of all others, the purest—and on that account, better calculated generally, for the purposes of breathing, in weakly persons. In all air there is more or less of that principle which is essential to life ”

“ The aërial ocean distributes heat over the world and making dryness or humidity. The latter, the air draws from the seas, from the infinity of the central ocean, and especially at the tropics, the great boilers of the universal cauldron. ”

“ The slightest movement of the air communicates motion to the surface of such a great sheet of water as the sea, and this motion is gradually increased till one ripple meets another, and the power of both goes to form the next, so that they acquire a very considerable size; when a gale of wind blows, the rolling of the waves far out at sea becomes terrific, and they rise like mountains, chasing one another over the wide ocean. ”

“ The enormous surface of the sea furnishes the air with vapor which turns into clouds; later these clouds dissolve in rain and, chased by the wind, travel like immense watering-pots over the ground, rendering it fertile. In their turn, rain and snow, precipitated by the clouds, give birth to the rivers that carry their waters to the sea. In that way a continual current is effected which, starting from the sea, returns to the sea, after having traveled through the atmosphere in the form of clouds, watered the earth as rain, and crossed continents as rivers. ”

“ A. The solar rays are unable to heat the surface of the sea as they do the earth; therefore, the air resting on the earth is more heated than the air resting on the sea; and the colder sea air blows inland to restore the equilibrium. ”

“ A portion of this heat, being imparted to the superincumbent air, causes it to rise, when the air, first from the beach, then from the sea, to the distance of several miles, begins to flow in with a most delightful and invigorating freshness. ”

“ A dense, close atmosphere, except for a few hours after a thunderstorm, during which time torrents of rain fall, when the air becomes a little refreshed; but a hot, glowing sun soon heats it again, and but for your awnings, and the little air put in circulation by the continual flapping of the ship's sails, it would be almost insufferable. No person who has not crossed this region can form an adequate idea of its unpleasant effects. ”

“ One of the grandest spectacles at sea is offered by the regular movement of the waves in perfectly calm weather, when not a breath of air stirs the sails. During to the Autumnal calm under the Tropic of Cancer, these waves appear with astonishing regularity at intervals of two hundred to three hundred yards, sweep under the ship, and as far as the eye can reach, are seen advancing and passing away, as regularly as the furrows in a field. Such waves are caused by the regularity of the trade winds. The height of the waves is not the same in all seas. ”

“ While the sea itself, approaching to the land, sports so closely to its shores that those two elements appear to be but one.
Next above the sea is the air, diversified by day and night: when rarefied, it possesses the higher region; when condensed, it turns into clouds, and with the waters which it gathers enriches the earth by the rain. Its agitation produces the winds. It causes heat and cold according to the different seasons. It sustains birds in their flight; and, being inhaled, nourishes and preserves all animated beings. ”

“ Although the wind was no more than a good breeze, and the ocean was but little disturbed, there were those symptoms in the atmosphere and in the long ground-swells that came rolling in from the southwest, that taught the mariner the cold lessons of caution. We believe that heavier gales of wind at sea are encountered in the warm than in the cold months; but there is something so genial in the air of the ocean during summer, and something so chilling and repulsive in the rival season, that most of us fancy that the currents of air correspond in strength with the fall of the mercury. ”

“ And the consequence is that after the sun has set, the land cools so much faster than the water that we soon have the opposite condition, and the sea is warmer than the land, which makes the air at that point lighter, and which in turn causes the denser or colder air from the land to flow toward the ocean, and displace the lighter air and force it upward ”

“ It is only in fine weather that this operation can be performed, at which seasons the external air is generally many degrees hotter than the atmosphere of the bread-room, which, from being low down in the ship, acquires, like a cellar, a pretty uniform temperature. The outer air, from its warmth, and from sweeping along the surface of the sea, is at all times charged with a considerable degree of vapour, the moisture of which is sure to be deposited upon any body it comes in contact with, colder than the air which bears it along. ”

“ What you do in a small way is the same action by which the waves of the sea are formed. All these disturbances of the smoothness of the sea are due to disturbances of the air. Wind acts upon the water of the sea as your breath does on that of the basin. Striking the surface it throws the water into ripples or undulations, and in continuing to blow along the surface it gives these additional force, until driven on by a furious gale they grow into huge billows. ”

“ Indeed, we afterwards found out that as a general rule the wind set on shore from daybreak for some hours, and off shore again at sunset, and the explanation that I offer of this is, that when the earth is cooled by the dew and the night the hot air rises, and the draught rushes in from the sea till the sun has once more heated it through. ”

“ When we make excursions beyond the reef into the ocean we carry with us metal bottles of condensed oxygenated air, whereby we are enabled to remain many hours away from the air-pipes of the enclosed sea without inconvenience. ”

“ In the waters it occurs as a mechanical mixture which is brought about as the rain forms and falls in the air, as the streams flow to the sea, and as the waves roll over the deep and beat against the shores. In the realm of the waters, as well as on the land, the air is necessary for the maintenance of all animal forms ”

“ As we ascend in a balloon or go up a mountain from the level of the sea-shore the air is continually less dense, until at last it becomes so thin that it cannot support life. At a height of twenty miles there is scarcely any air at all—not one hundredth part of the density of air at the surface of the sea. ”

“ Upward and downward movements in fluids are consequent upon each other, and they involve lateral movements. The sea, with its vapour, is the great engine which gives upward motion in the air. As soon as aqueous vapour is formed it rises; the air resists its ascent; but it is lighter than the air, therefore (§ 177) it forces the resisting particles of air up along with it, and so produces ascending columns in the atmosphere. The juxta air comes in to occupy the space which that carried up by the vapour leaves behind it, and so there is a wind produced. ”

“ In regard to its nature, it is sufficient to say that atmospheric air is composed of two gases—oxygen and nitrogen. Like the sea, the atmosphere is an ocean which flows, not in chaotic confusion, but in regular, appointed courses; acting in obedience to the fixed, unvarying laws of the Almighty, and having currents, counter-currents, and eddies also, just like the watery ocean, which exercise a specific and salutary influence where they exist. ”

“ Add to this, that when the air has been exhausted of its moisture by long rain, the spray of the sea is caught by it as described above, and covers its surface not merely with the smoke of finely divided water, but with boiling mist: imagine also the low rain-clouds brought down to the very level of the sea, as I have often seen them, whirling and flying in rags and fragments from wave to wave ”

“ This backward movement of the wind is easily accounted for, when it is remembered that with such a high temperature and an almost cloudless sky, the ground becomes much heated, causing the lower stratum of warm and rarefied air to ascend, while the cooler and heavier air is then drawn in from the sea to supply its place;' and the moisture in this sea-breeze by tempering the sunshine renders outdoor life the more agreeable. ”

“ The water will not spill, the air below holds it up. Turn back to Air in this book and find out what air weighs.
Just as fish and sea plants may live at the bottom of the ocean of water, so land animals and plants live at the bottom of the ocean of air. The top of this ocean of air is level, too. Do you think the air on a mountain peak would be as deep or as heavy as the air in a low valley? A glass full of water has no color. But an ocean full of water looks blue. We cannot see air itself, but we can see the color of it. When it is forty miles deep air looks blue, too. ”

“ A soft Sea washed around the House
A Sea of Summer Air
And rose and fell the magic Planks
That sailed without a care —
For Captain was the Butterfly
For Helmsman was the Bee
And an entire universe
For the delighted crew. ”

“ We have also pools, of which some do strain fresh water out of salt, and others by art do turn fresh water into salt. We have also some rocks in the midst of the sea, and some bays upon the shore for some works, wherein are required the air and vapor of the sea. We have likewise violent streams and cataracts, which serve us for many motions; and likewise engines for multiplying and enforcing of winds to set also on divers motions. ”

“ Sunrise offered a very beautiful spectacle; the water was quite unruffled, but the motion communicated by the tides was so great that, although there was not a breath of air stirring, the sea heaved slowly with a grand and majestic motion. ”

“ But we see in the professor's experiments the dawn of more new beauties, and the appearance of other exquisite compensations, which, in studying the 'wonders of the deep,' we have so often paused to contemplate and admire:—As the trade- wind region feeds the air with the vapour of fresh water, the process of evaporation from the sea is checked, for the water-which remains, being salter, parts with its vapour less readily ”