34 THE OCEAN 



it came up it had a large brownish-black 

 streak where it had evidently struck obliquely 

 on manganese peroxide. On the Dacia Bank 

 a mark-buoy happened to be let go just on the 

 edge of the bank in 175 fathoms. On trying 

 to lift the moorings the buoy-rope carried 

 away, and it was found to have been chafed 

 through about 100 fathoms from the surface. 

 The currents had evidently been rubbing it 

 against the cliff during the two days that it was 

 down. 



The North Atlantic contains a relatively 

 small number of islands, the principal of which 

 are the British Isles, Newfoundland, the West 

 Indies, the Azores, the Canaries, and the 

 Cape Verde Islands. 



The Arctic Ocean has a maximum depth of 

 2200 fathoms. It is cut off from the Norwegian 

 Sea, in which the depth also exceeds 2000 

 fathoms, by the shallow water between the 

 North Cape and Spitzbergen, and there are 

 indications of a deeply submerged ridge also 

 between Spitzbergen and Greenland. The 

 Norwegian Sea is separated from the North 

 Atlantic by what may be regarded as a 

 continuous ridge running from Greenland to 

 the British Islands plateau, of which Iceland 

 and the Faroe Islands are emerged portions ; 

 that part of the ridge between Shetland and 

 Faroe has been called the Wyville Thomson 



