4 "ALBATROSS" EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITIOX. 



Fernandez Plateau. I hesitate to accept this interpretation of the few- 

 shallower soundings taken by the " Challenger " more than six hundred 

 miles south of the 2000-fathom line defining the Easter Island and Sala y 

 Gomez Plateau. 



The Albatross Plateau, as developed by the "Albatross" (Pis. 9, 11), 

 separates the Bowers and Buchan Basins from the great basin to the north- 

 west. The eastern slope indicated by the 2000-fathom line gradually falls 

 into deeper water as we pass towards the South American coast, while 

 the western slope passes into deep water in the direction of Grey's Deep 

 and of the Moser Basin and Moser Deep (PL 1). The Galapagos Plateau 

 is separated from the Albatross Plateau by a wide channel of more than 

 300 miles, with a probable greatest depth of nearly 2300 fathoms. 



Our line from Easter Island to the Galapagos (PL 12) shows a wonder- 

 fully level tract, varying in depth only from 2020 to 2265 fathoms in a 

 distance of nearly 2000 miles. 



On our line, Galapagos to Manga Reva, we developed the western extension 

 of the Albatross Plateau (PL 5), and found it varying in depth from 1900 

 to somewhat less than 2300 fathoms in a distance of nearly 3000 miles ; 

 about half-way from the Galapagos to Manga Reva we came upon a ridge 

 of about 200 miles in length with a depth of 1700 to lOoS fathoms, dropping 

 rapidly to the south to over 1900 fathoms. 1 propose to call this elevation 

 Garrett Ridge (Pis. 1, 5). 



Our line from Manga Reva to Acapulco (PL 12) shows the gradual 

 slope of the western extension of the Albatross Plateau towards the great 

 basin of the Eastern Pacific. This line is almost level; in a distance of 3200 

 miles the depth varies only about 400 fathoms. The great area traversed 

 by the "Albatross" was practically mare incognUum. Three soundings in 

 latitude 20' S., towards the Paumotus, and five soundings in a north- 

 westerly trend from Callao to Grey's Deep (PL 8) are all the depths that 

 were previously known of this great expanse of water. The existence of a 

 great plateau dividing Bowers Basin along the South American coast from 

 Grey and Moser Basins (Pis. 1, 9, 11) to the west is most interesting. It 

 recalls the division of the Southern Atlantic into an Eastern and Western 

 Basin by a central connecting ridge, the " Challenger " Ridge. 



The existence of a sounding of 2554 fathoms near the equator in longi- 

 tude 110° W., would seem to indicate a small basin disconnected from 

 Grey's Deep and Moser Basin. How far west towards these basins that 



