p. 429 | WONDERS OF THE SEA

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 27.

WONDERS OF THE SEA.

EVAPORATION is a wonderful power in drawing water from the sea. Every year a layer of the entire sea fourteen feet thick is taken up in the clouds. The winds bear their burden into the land, and the water comes down in rain upon the fields, to flow back at last through rivers. The depth of the sea presents an interesting problem. If the Atlantic were lowered 6,564 feet, the distance from shore would be half as great, or 1,500 miles. If lowered a little more than three miles, say 16,680 feet, there would be a road of dry land from Newfoundland to Ireland. This is the plain on which the great Atlantic cables were laid. The Mediterranean is comparatively shallow. A drying up of 660 feet would leave three different seas, and Africa would be joined with Italy. The British channel is more like a pond, which accounts for its choppy waves.—Selected.