CONTINENTAL SEAS 115 



BiscAYAN Type. 



Zones: Pelagic, littoral, abyssal. 



a. Closed Head. 



Atlantic system: Bay of Biscay, Gulf of 



Guinea. 

 Subordinate: Gulf of Taranto, Gulf of 



Lyons, Gulf of Sidra. 



b. Open Head. 



Atlantic system: Gulf of Cadiz. 

 Fundyan Type. 



Zones: Pelagic, littoral. 



a. Closed Head. 



Atlantic system: Bay of Fundy, Rio de 

 la Plata. 



b. Open Head. 



Indian system (Subordinate) : Gulf of 

 Suez. (Head artificially opened.) 



B. THE. CONTINENTAL DIVISION OF THE 

 HYDROSPHERE. 



III. Continental Seas or Lakes. 



Inland seas or lakes, i. e., water bodies entirely enclosed by 

 land, may be classed as continental. They are either salt or fresh, 

 depending on their location within the arid or the pluvial belts and 

 on the relative amount of evaporation and precipitation. Salt lakes 

 lying near the sea often have their surface below that of the ocean, 

 as in the case of the Caspian Sea, the surface of which lies 26 

 meters below the level of the Black Sea, less than 500 kilometers 

 distant; while the Dead Sea is 394 meters below the level of the 

 Roman mediterranean, which is only 75 kilometers distant. The 

 Sea of Aral, however, another salt sea in the same belt, is 48 

 meters above the Black Sea, with a maximum depth of 66 meters ; 

 while Balchash Sea, in the Great Steppe farther east, has an eleva- 

 tion of 274 meters, with a depth of 25 meters. In the region 

 bounded by the Caspian, the Black, and the Mediterranean 

 (Roman), are several small salt lakes varying from 940 meters to 

 1,925 meters in elevation. In North America, Great Salt Lake has 

 an elevation of 1,283 nieters above the sea. 



Fresh-water lakes all have their surfaces above or just at sea- 

 level, though some of them have their bottoms far below sea-level. 



