CHAP. V.| DEEP-SEA SOUNDING. 22:7 
if not quite as great as any to be found in the other 
ocean basins, it may probably be taken as a fair 
example of ordinary conditions. It is open from 
pole to pole, and thus participates in all conditions 
of climate, and it communicates freely with the 
other seas. We have still but scanty information 
about the beds of the Indian, the Antarctic, and the 
Pacific oceans, but the few observations which have 
hitherto reached us seem to indicate that neither is 
the depth extreme in these seas, nor does the nature 
of the bottom differ greatly from what we find nearer 
home. The Mediterranean—a closed cul-de-sac 
almost cut off from the general ocean—is under 
most peculiar circumstances, which will be discussed 
hereafter. The general result to which we are led 
by the careful and systematic deep-sea soundings 
which have been undertaken of late years by our 
own Admiralty and by the American and Swedish 
Governments, ‘is that the depth of the sea is not so 
ereat as was at one time supposed. I have already 
mentioned that in some of the earlier sounding expe- 
ditions enormous depths were registered from various 
parts of the Atlantic, and I have also mentioned the 
reasons, depending chiefly upon defective apphances, 
why many of these soundings are now considered un- 
trustworthy. Lieutenant Berryman of the U.S. brig 
‘ Dolphin,’ reported 4,580 fathoms (27,480 feet), equal 
to the height of Dwalagiri, in lat. 41° 7 N., long. 
49° 23° W., half-way between New York and the 
Acores ; ‘no bottom’ at 4,920 fathoms (29,520 feet), 
deeper than the height of Deodunga, the highest 
peak in the world, in lat. 38° 3’ N., long. 67° 14° W. ; 
and ‘no bottom’ at 6,600 fathoms (89,600 feet), 
Q 2 
