“And what taste has sea-water?”
“A taste at once bitter and salt, offensive to the palate and causing nausea. That taste comes from the dissolved substances. The most abundant is ordinary salt, the salt we use for seasoning our food.”
“Salt, however,” objected Jules, “has no disagreeable taste, although one cannot drink a glass of salt water.”
“Doubtless; but in the waters of the sea it is accompanied by many other dissolved substances whose taste is very disagreeable. The degree of salt varies in different seas. A liter of water in the Mediterranean contains 44 grams of saline substances; a liter of water in the Atlantic Ocean contains only 32.
“An attempt has been made to estimate, approximately, the total quantity of salt contained in the ocean. Were the ocean dried up and all its saline ingredients left at the bottom, they would suffice to cover the whole surface of the earth with a uniform layer ten meters thick.”
“Oh, what a lot of salt!” cried Emile. “We should never see the end of it, however much we salted our food. Then salt is obtained from the sea?”
“Certainly. A low, level stretch of seashore is selected, basins are dug, shallow but of considerable extent; these are called salt marshes. Then the sea-water is admitted to these basins. When they are full, the communication with the sea is closed. The work on salt marshes is done in the summer. The heat of the sun causes the water to evaporate little by little, and the salt remains in a crystalline crust that is removed with rakes. The accumulated salt is piled up in a big heap to let it drain.”
“If we should put a plate of salt water in the sun, would that be doing in a small way what is done in the salt marshes?” asked Jules.
“Exactly: the water would disappear, evaporated by the sun, and the salt would remain in the plate.”
“There are lots of fish in the sea, I know,” said Claire, “small, large, and monstrous. The sardine, cod, anchovy, tunny-fish, and ever so many more come to us from the sea. There are also mollusks, as you call them, also animals that cover themselves with a shell; then enormous crabs with claws bigger than a man’s fist; and a lot of other creatures that I don’t know. What do they all live on?”