216 CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 
sand fathoms at its entrance, and having depths inside of 
one thousand to seven hundred and fifty fathoms; and the 
other, Exuma Sound, entering from the east, and having 
depths within of twelve hundred fathoms toward the en- 
trance, and eight hundred near the mner extremity. 
Beyond the Great Bank, eastward, the ocean’s depths and 
the abruptness of the submarine declivities increase rapidly. 
Even in the New Providence Channel, east of the Little Ba- 
hama Bank, there are depths of twenty-two hundred and 
seventy fathoms, over thirteen thousand five hundred feet. 
The north shore of Eleuthera Island has nearly this depth 
within seven miles, or thirty-seven thousand feet, of its emerged 
reef; the pitch, therefore, 1:2°75. San Salvador, east of Cat 
Island, has a depth of fourteen thousand feet within three 
miles of the emerged reef, a pitch down of about 1:1:13, and 
a depth of sixteen thousand six hundred and forty-four feet 
within ten miles, the pitch 1:3; and almost eighteen thou- 
sand feet within twenty-one miles. These steep northern un- 
der-water slopes are continued along the course of the group 
eastward. Besides this, the channel on the south side of the 
group, Which is twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet deep 
against middle Cuba, is over thirteen thousand five hundred 
feet north of Hayti. The line of reef-islands beyond Turk’s 
Island eastward have less emerged land than those to the 
westward. The last, Navidad, is mostly submerged reef, and 
has depths of thirteen thousand five hundred feet within fif- 
teen miles on the east and south, and seventeen thousand 
five hundred within thirty-five miles to the east-northeast. 
These facts as to the depths and steep submarine declivi- 
ties along the coral-reef islands are as remarkable as any 
yet observed in the Pacific Ocean, even among its equatorial 
islands. 
