Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1889 — Hills and Dales on the Ocean. [ARTICLE]

Hills and Dales on the Ocean.

We have all been taught to believe that the ocean,' after allowing for tide waves and wind waves, has a level surface ; that there are no hills or valleys on the waters. M. Bouquet de la Grye has disputed this; has, in fact, demonstrated its fallacy. If we take a Usliaped tube with distilled water of equal temperature on both sides, the two surfaces .will be perfectly level; but if one side contains a liquid that is denser than on the other, more of the lighter liquid is required to balance the heavier, and therefore the lighter will stand at a higher level. If fresh water is on one side and salt on the other, equilibrium can only be established by the fresh water standing a little higher than the salt. The like must happen * if we have a uniform liquid, as regards composition, but. of unequal temperature. Such variations occur in the oceans. Where rivers are pourirg * large quantities of fresh water into the sea, and where icebergs are rapidly melting, the salinity is proportionately lower than the other parts. The temperature also varies, and, therefore, an equilibrium can only be attained by variations of level; the lighter water must stand higher than the denser, whether the difference be due to temperature or salinity. Thus in crossing the warm Gulf Stream, a ship sails up-hill, on entering, proceeds thus to .somewhere about the middle, and then descends. In this respect it resembles a flowing river, which is similarly crested toward the middle of the stream ; it is also like a river in being higher at its source than at its embouchure, as its temperature gradually declines in the course of its northward progress, i “We had a cane presentation down at school to-day,” said William, aftei an unusually long silence.at the supper table. “Ah, indeed. And who got the cane?" “I did."