CHAPTER IV.

The lllagnilude 0f the Ocean.

   

v a2

A ariHERE are several arbitrary quantities
 j, which contribute to determine the state of
things at the earth’s surface besides those already
mentioned. Some of these we shall briefly refer
to, without pursuing the subject into detail. We
wish not only to show that the properties and
processes of vegetable and animal life must be
adjusted to each of these quantities in particular,
but also to point out how numerous and com-
plicated the conditions of the existence of or-
ganized beings are ; and we shall thus be led to
think less inadequately of the intelligence which
has embraced at once, and combined without
(ronfusion, all these conditions. We appear thus
to be conducted to the conviction not only of
design and intention, but of supreme knowledge
and wisdom.

One of the quantities which enters into the
constitution of the terrestrial system of things is
the bulk of the waters of the ocean. The mean
depth of the sea, according to the calculations
of Laplace, is four or five miles. On this sup-
position, the addition to the sea of one-fourth of
the existing waters would drown the whole of
the globe, except a few chains of mountains.