The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-10
THE SEA GROWING MORE SALT.
The Addition Of Mineral and Vegetable
Matter Not Balanced By Evaporation.

| The Addition OF Mineral and Vegetable
Matter Not Balanced By Evaporation.
Modern research has shown that the
ocean contains in solution nearly every
element that exists upon the earth, and
that these elements exist in the water
In proportions nearly corresponding to
the mean solublity of their various
compounds Thus gold and silver and
most OF the other heavy metals are
| found to exist there. Sonnenstadt found
about fourteen grains of gold to the ton
| OF sea water. or a dollars worth in less
| than two tons. As the ocean covers all
the lower valleys Of the earth, it re-
ceives all the drainage from the whole
of the exposed land. This drainage is
the rain water that has fallen upon this
superficial slopes. or has sunk into por-
GUS land and descended underground
In either case the water must dissolve
and carry with it any soluble matter
that it meets, the quantity ofsolid mat
ter which is thus appropriated being
proportionate to it's solubility and the
extent OF its exposure to the solvent
Rain when it falls upon the earth is
| distilled water nearly pure Gts small
impurities being what it obtains from
the air), but river water when it reaches
the ocean contains measurable guam
titles of dissolved mineral and vegeta Bile
matter These small contrib buttons are
ever pouring in and ever accommodating.
This continual addition of dissolved
mineral salts, without any correspond
ing abstraction by evaporation, has
been going on ever since the surface of
the earth consisted of land and water.
An examination of the composition of
OF other bodies of water, which, like
the ocean receive rivers or rivulets and
have no other outlet than that afforded
by evaporation, confirms this view All
OF these are more or less saline, many
OF them more SO than the ocean itself
On the great table land of Asia, ''the
roof of the world" there is multitude
OF small lakes which receive the waters
OF the rivers and rivulets of that region
and have no outlet to the ocean. On
the map they appear like bags with
string attached, the bag being tho
lake and the string the river All these
lakes are saline, many of them excess
lively SO, simply because they are ever
receiving river water of slight salinjty
and ever giving off vapor which has no
salinity at all. There is no wash
through these lakes as in the great
American lakes or those'of Constance,
Geneva, etc. The Sea of Aral and the
Caspian are lakes without any other
outlet than evaporation, and they are
saline accordingly. The Dead sea,
which receives the Jordan at one end
and multitude of minor rivers aud
rivulets at the other end and sides, is
noted example of extreme salinity.
1t is, as everybody knows, a sea or lake
of brine. The total area of land drain
ing into the great ocean does not exceed
one-fourth of it's own area, while the
Dead sea receives the drainage and solu-
BILE matter of an area above twenty
times greater than its own, and thus it
fulfills the demand of the above stated
theory by having far greater salinity
than has the great ocean. According
to this view the salinity OF the ocean
must be steadily though slowly increas-
ing. and there must be slowly proceed
ing corresponding adaptation of evo-
luton among its inhabitants both ami
NAL and vegetable. -Science