On carbonate of lime as an ingredient of sea-water

The manner in which limestone cliffs rising above deep water are worn by the action of the sea, as it were by a weak acid, such as we know it contains, viz. the carbonic—the manner, further, in which the sand on low shores where the waves break, becomes consolidated, converted into sandstone, by the deposition of carbonate of lime from sea-water owing to the escape of carbonic acid gas,—are facts clearly proving that carbonate of lime is as a constituent of sea-water neither rare of occurrence, nor unimportant in the ceconomy of nature, inasmuch as the phenomena alluded to,—the one destructive, the other restorative,—have been observed in most parts of our globe where geological inquiry has been instituted. Reflecting on the subject, it seemed to me desirable to ascertain whether carbonate of lime as an ingredient of sea-water is chiefly confined to the proximity of coasts, or not so limited enters into the composition of the ocean in its widest expanse.