Show WHY THE SEA IS SALT SAIT IT RECEIVES MINERAL SALT FROM I 1 LAND AND LOSES NONE L the process of evaporation delease ne lease from the oceans but the tha salt nemat Ee malna therefore Ther efura the sea la continually y G grow row ing in more salty why ill il sea water salt is a question that has been reg regarded as a dyste mystery and has given rise to some curious speculations but a little consideration on the subject must I 1 think satisfy us all that thai it would bo be very w wonderful ond erful quite in incomprehensible if the waters of the tbt ocean were otherwise than salt as tey are the following explanation was wag fisi first suggested to myself many years age when receiving my first lessons in practical chemical analysis the problem then to bo be solved was the separation cl the bases dissolved in water by pr precipitating ecla them ono ona by ono in a solid condition filtrating away the wat water e from the first it then from this filtrate fil trat r precipitating the second and so on until all were separated or accounted for but in doing this there was one base that was always left to the last on account of the difficulty of combining it with any acid that would form a solid compound a 4 difficulty so BO great that its ita presence was determined by a different inemon aethol jolls base la Is soda the predominating base of sea salt where it is cora com blaed with hydrochloric acid not only Is soda tho the most soluble of all tho the mineral bases but the n naneral mineral acid with which it ft is combined forms a remarkably soluble series of salts the chlorides thua the primary fact concerning the salinity of sea water is that it has selected from among the stable chemical elements the two which form the most soluble corn coin pounds among the earthy bases bisone isone is one which is exceptionally soluble that is is magnesia and this stands standa next to soda in its abundance in sea water modern research has shown that the ocean coutt contains ains in solution ear nearly every element ty t exists upon the earth and that these fale elements ments exist in the water in proportions nearly corresponding to the mean solubility of their various compounds thus gold and silver and most of the other heavy metals exist there Sonnen stadt found about fo fourteen grains of gold to the ton of seawater ter or a dollars worth in less than two tons ton As the ocean covers all the lower valleys of the earth it receives all the drainage e from the whole of the exposed land this drainage is the rainwater that has fallen upon this exposed surface has bas flowed down its superficial slopes or has haa sunk into porous land and descended underground in either case the water must most dissolve and carry with it any soluble matter that it meets the quantity of solid matter which is thus apar appropriated OP i being proportionate to its ita solubility and the extent extant of its exposure to the solvent rain pain when it falls upon the earth is ia distilled water nearly pure its ita email impurities being what it obtains froza from the air but river riter water when it reaches the ocean contains measurable quantities of dissolved mineral and vegetable matter these small email contributions ti ons are ever pouring in and ever accumulating mu lating this continual addition of i mineral salts without any cor mp ng abstraction by evaporation haa I 1 i going on ever since the surface of th tb earth consisted of land and water an examination of the composition of other bodies of water which me like the ocean receive rivers and rivulets and have no other outlet than that afforded I 1 by evaporation oration conf confirms irmis this view biow all T these of these axe are more mora or less leas saline many of them more mora so than the ocean itself on the great tableland of A asia aa a the roof of the world there is a multitude of sm small all lakes which receive the waters of rivers and rivulets of that region and have no outlet to the ocean on a map they appear like bags with a string attached the bag being the lake and the string the river all these thesa lakes are saline many of them excessively so BO simply because they are ever receiving river water of blight salinity and ever giving off vapor which has no salinity ty atall at all there is is no wash through thron gh these lakes as m in the great american lakes or those of constance leneva geneva etc sea are lakes without any other outlet than evaporation and they are saline accord egiy the dead sea which receives the jordan at one ona end and a multitude of minor rivers and rivulets at the other end and sides is ia a noted example of extreme salinity ealin ity it is as everybody knows a sea or lake of brine the tow total area of I 1 land and training into the great ocean does not exceed one fourth of its own area while the dead sea receives the drainage and soluble matter of an area above twenty times greater than its own and thus it fulfills the demand of the tha above stated theory by having far greater salinity sali n ity than has the great ocean according to this view the tha salinity of the tha ocean must bo be steadily though very slowly increasing and there must be slowly proceeding a corresponding adaptation of evolution among the inhabit ants animal and vegetable the study of this subject and the tha effect which the increasing salinity of the past must I 1 have had u upon pon the P progressive uve modifications tiona of organic life displayed by fossils is ia I 1 worthy of more attention than it has baa hitherto received erom paleontologists TV battien ilat tien williams in science |