Although the water in the seas is, as we have seen, probably less than one half of the store which the earth possesses, the part it plays in the economy of the planet is in the highest measure important. The underground water operates solely to promote certain changes which take place in the mineral realm. Its effect, except in volcanic processes, are brought about but slowly, and are limited in their action. The movements of this buried water are exceedingly gradual; the forces which impel it about and which bring it to do its work originate in the earth. In the seas the fluid has an exceeding freedom of motion; it can obey the varied impulses which the solar energy imposes upon it. The role of these wonderful actions which we are about to trace includes almost everything which goes on upon the surface of the planet--that which relates to the development of animal and vegetable life, as well as to the vast geological changes which the earth is undergoing. If the surface of the earth were uniformly covered with water to the depth of ten thousand feet or more, every particle of fluid would, in a measure, obey the attraction of the sun, of the moon, and, theoretically, also of all the other bodies in space, on the principle that every particle of matter in the universe exercises a gravitative effect on every other. As it is, owing to the divided condition of the water on the earth's surface, only that which is in the ocean and larger seas exhibits any measurable influence from these distant attractions. In fact, only the tides produced by the moon and sun are of determinable magnitude, and of these the lunar is of greater importance, the reason being the near position of our satellite to our own sphere. The solar tide is four tenths as great as the lunar. The water doubtless obeys in a slight way the attraction of the other celestial bodies, but the motions thus imparted are too small to be discerned; they are lost in the great variety of influences which affect all the matter on the earth.