The sea is like a great filter, which alone can produce the change of matter that is necessary for life.

In the course of a century numberless rivers carry earth to the sea.

Each river carries without ceasing its burden of earth and sand to the ocean; and the sea receives the load which is carried by the current far out to sea, and slowly and by degrees in the course of time the sea dissolves or crushes all it has received.

No matter to the sea if the process lasts a thousand years or more--it may even last for ages, who can tell?
"But one day, quite suddenly, the sea begins to wander.

Once there was sea everywhere, and all continents are born from the sea.