“Did you know, professor,” he asked me with a smile, “that the sea contained such wealth?”
“I know it’s estimated,” I replied, “that there are 2,000,000 metric tons of silver held in suspension in seawater.”
“Surely, but in extracting that silver, your expenses would outweigh your profits. Here, by contrast, I have only to pick up what other men have lost, and not only in this Bay of Vigo but at a thousand other sites where ships have gone down,
“Did you know, professor,” he asked me with a smile, “that the sea contained such wealth?”
“I know it’s estimated,” I replied, “that there are 2,000,000 metric tons of silver held in suspension in seawater.”
“Surely, but in extracting that silver, your expenses would outweigh your profits. Here, by contrast, I have only to pick up what other men have lost, and not only in this Bay of Vigo but at a thousand other sites where ships have gone down,
