The annual stampede of Britons to the coast says much for our National belief in Sea-breezes. In other countries also people go to the sea for change; but perhaps nowhere does the rush excel that on our Island. This revivifying gift, though partly due to the wide and free expanse through which the breezes have travelled, is largely owing to the briny ocean with which they have been in contact. Sea-water differs from rain-water, well-water, river-water. True, it is made up of all these, since sooner or later and in one mode or another all water on Earth finds its way to the Ocean. Water may travel openly by river-routes; it may creep silently by dark and devious underground passages; it may float lightly _viâ_ cloudland; but in any case its goal is the sea. Still, though the ocean includes in its composition every kind of land-water, Sea-water as such is different from them all. Not only in its vast extent, in its enormous depth, but in its strong flavour of Salt. One of the commonest of substances is Salt. It is in the ground, in air, in water. We even know that it does not belong to our earth alone, but to many heavenly bodies also. Perhaps one reason for this abundance, at least upon our Earth, is that it is necessary for life. There is salt in the make of blood and of brain, of muscle and of tendon. Salt is perpetually passing out of a man’s body; therefore continual fresh supplies of it are needed. Without a certain amount of salt in his food, he cannot keep in good health. This at one time was not understood; and salt was looked upon as a mere luxury, easily to be dispensed with. Condemned criminals were forbidden that luxury; and they went through a good deal of suffering, the reason for which was not guessed. If plenty of animal and vegetable food was given to them, they managed to get along, since both contain salt; but if they were kept on purely farinaceous fare, they broke down. Where all the salt in the Ocean comes from, is a complex question. Large supplies are brought down annually by rivers and streams, from various minerals in their beds, as well as from rock-salt regions. But if we ask, “How comes the rock-salt to be there?” we are told that it is a deposit, once formed beneath ocean-waters, or at least left by the drying up of salt lakes and seas. A proof of the latter theory is found in multitudes of sea-shells, often distributed through layers of rock-salt. If much sea-salt came originally from rock-salt on land, and if rock-salt came originally from ocean-deposits, we are led into a curious circle of cause and effect--not unlike that of oak and acorn, or of hen and egg, with the attendant puzzle of--Which first? It is a query which we are not able to answer.