The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-10-18
The Red Sea.

I 4uC pCQ SSd.
This large body of water, which sepa-
rates the shores of Asia from those of At
rica, is about fourteen hundred miles in
length and nearly two hundred in average
breadth. 1t derives its name from guam
titles of shiny, red, coloring matter which
waters and is washed up along its beach
es, and which has been pronounced by
DIR. Ehrenberg to be composed of an inf
mite number of very delicate vegetables.
This discoloration of the waters is by no
means peculiar to- the Red Sea. The
warm waters Of the Pacific Ocean swarm
with nascent organism, sometimes animal
and sometimes vegetable, which color its
surface crimson, brown, black, or white,
according to their own hues. These patch
es of colored water often extend, especial
ly in the Indian Ocean, as far as the eye
can reach. Along the coast of China yell
lowish spots are not uncommon, and the
Yellow Sea derives its from the frcquen-
cy of the yellowish patches in that local
ity. The average depth of the Red Sea
is about FIVE hundred feet. Sudden
changes of wind and violent gales render
its navigation difficult. Nevertheless in
past years, before the discovery of the
passage around the Cape of Good Hope,
it was the principal route of traffic be-
tween Europe and the East, and even now
it is important as a part of the direct
route between Europe and India
Lieut.. Maury, in an account of the cur
rents of the ocean, says that there is a
perpetual current rushing from the Indian
Ocean into the Red Sea. This current is
peculiar, inasmuch as while the bottom of
it is probably water level, the surface
is an inclined plane, running dorm hill.
The causes which render the surface of
the sea lower as it becomes more distant
from the straits are these:-The sea is In
a rainless and ri7erless district; its shores
are burning sands; the evaporation is
ceaseless, and none of the vapors which
the scorching winds that blow over it car
ry away are returned to it in other forms.
When We consider how dry and hot the
winds are which blow upon the sea, We
may suppose the daily evaporation to be
immense, probably not less than an inch
Calling it, however, half an inch only, if
we suppose the velocity of the current to
average twenty miles day, it would take
the water fifty days to arrive at distance
of one thousand miles from the mouth,
and by that time it would have lost by e.
vaporation fifty half inches, or one inch
more than two feet. 1t would be twenty
five inches lower than the waves which
are just entering the straits, and which
have lost nothing by evaporation.
The salt OF course cannot eyaporate, and
therefore the water becomes salter in pro-
portion, and heavier, as its freshness is
evaporated. One would think, at first
glance. that the eventful result would be
either that this heavier and salter water
would deposit its surplus salt in the shape
of crystals, and thus gradually make the
bottom of the Red Sea salt bed, or that
it would extract all the salt from the o.
cean to make the Red Sea brine. neither
of which processes is in reality going on.
The truth is that there is a constant un-
der or orter current, as there is from the
Mediterranean through the Straits of Glib
ralter, and that this heavy water or brine
is continually flowing out of the Straits
of Babelmandel, beneath the current of
fresher and lighter water from the sea
that is continually flowing in. If there
were no waters constantly rushing out of
the Red Sea, if the evaporation was suf-
fcient to carry away all the surplus wa
ter, leaving the salt behind, in one hun
dred years the Red Sea would become a
mass of solid rock salt