PREFACE.

IN "Breakfast Table Science" an attempt

was made to attract the young, by pre-

senting old scientific truths in a new and

strange garb. In this little volume an en-

deavour is made to describe the workings of

the Ocean from the beginning of time down

to the present hour; and the reader will

detect at a glance, that the present " Table

of Contents" is formed after the work above

alluded to.

When it is remembered that the Ocean
has ever been, in the hands of the Divine

Architect, in the fashioning every rock and
valley, what the trowel has been in the
hands of man in building palaces and cities,
it becomes an object of the deepest interest
to all to explain how rocks, sand, clay, lime-
stone, &c., were formed; and to show that
the Ocean is even now employed as the
agent in preparing a new earth, will be the
main object.