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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
87
Some
day,
when
you
are
at
the
seaside,
take
some
extra
water
and
set
it
on
the
hob
till
a
great
deal
has
simmered
gently
away,
and
the
liquid
is
very
thick.
Then
take
a
drop
of
this
liquid,
and
examine
it
under
a
microscope.
As
it
dries
up
gradually,
you
will
see
a
number
of
crystals
forming,
some
square
-
and
these
will
be
crystals
of
ordinary
salt;
some
oblong
-
these
will
be
crystals
of
gypsum
or
alabaster;
and
others
of
various
shapes.
Then,
when
you
see
how
much
matter
from
the
land
is
contained
in
sea-water,
you
will
no
longer
wonder
that
the
sea
is
salt;
on
the
contrary,
you
will
ask,
Why
does
it
not
grow
salter
every
year?
The
answer
to
this
scarcely
belongs
to
our
history
of
a
drop
of
water,
but
I
must
just
suggest
it
to
you.
In
the
sea
are
numbers
of
soft-bodied
animals,
like
the
jelly
animals
which
form
the
coral,
which
require
hard
material
for
their
shells
or
the
solid
branches
on
which
they
live,
and
they
are
greedily
watching
for
these
atoms
of
lime,
of
flint,
or
magnesia,
and
of
other
substances
brought
down
into
the
sea.
It
is
with
lime
and
magnesia
that
the
tiny
chalk-builders
form
their
beautiful
shells,
and
the
coral
animals
their
skeletons,
while
another
class
of
builders
use
the
flint;
and
when
these
creatures
die,
their
remains
go
to
form
fresh
land
at
the
bottom
of
the
sea;
and
so,
though
the
earth
is
being
washed
away
by
the
rivers
and
springs
it
is
being
built
up
again,
out
of
the
same
materials,
in
the
depths
of
the
great
ocean.
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