Coast of France and Bay of Biscay 
the coast of France; and the channel is recognised on the Admiralty Chart for some distance from the 
shore under the name of “La Fosse de Cap Breton.” The channel reaches a depth of 1050 feet at 
a distance of 5 or 6 miles from the shore, and 700 feet below the surface of the platform. At a 
distance of 15 miles another channel joins that of the Adour on the south side ; and from this point it 
rapidly deepens, assuming the features ofa grand cafion bounded by steep, sometimes precipitous, walls of 
rock of 4000 to 6000 feet in height ; and ultimately opening out on the floor of the ocean at a depth of 
about 1200 fathoms (or 7200 feet). At a few miles above the embouchure the channel bifurcates, the 
two arms embracing a tract (once doubtless an island) of shallower ground ; thus the Adour opens out on 
the floor of the abyssal ocean through a double outlet of lofty walls. 
Were there no other sub-oceanic channels throughout the whole coast of Europe than that of the 
Adour it would of itself be sufficient to demonstrate its own fluviatile origin and that of all the others 
here described ; as throughout its course it presents all the characters of a river, in its origin, its slope 
towards the sea, and the branches which unite with it.’ 
Along the north-western side of the Bay of Biscay the Continental Platform reaches its greatest 
breadth of about 150 miles; but along its southern shore this is reduced to a very narrow breadth not 
exceeding 50 miles in the meridian of long. 6° W. in its widest part. But here it is trenched by 
channels of streams which descended from the Pyrenees between precipitous walls of rock several 
thousand feet in height; and precipices of similar altitude and precipitancy occur along the N.W. scarp 
in the vicinity of lat. 46° N. and long. 4° W. Outside these stupendous walls, and toward the centre of 
the bay, the nearly level floor of the ocean, formed of Globigerina ooze, descends to a depth of 2600 
fathoms, or 15,600 feet. This concludes our description of this part of the European coast. 
The Spectacle.—Before taking leave of this celebrated bay, the terror of the mariner, being open to the 
tremendous waves of the Atlantic driven by the westerly winds, we may be allowed to revert for a 
moment from the purely descriptive phenomena which are now disclosed by means of the sounding-line, 
to picture to ourselves the scenic aspect which primeval man, had he existed, would have witnessed 
when approaching its shores, say, from “The Islands of the Blest,” and opposite the entrance to the 
Gironde. In front of his ship would have appeared a huge wall rising from the ocean, stretching north- 
wards till lost in the distance, capped by a nearly level terrace, indented by bays, and breaking out at 
intervals into headlands, beyond which the land would be seen receding into the plains of central France 
overspread by the woods and forests in the distance. 
Turning to the south he would see this wall ranging westward, and supporting at a short distance a 
range of lofty snow-capped mountains rising into the clouds, from which descended streams of ice 
glistering under the rays of the western sun—the whole composing a spectacle unique in its way, but 
scarcely surpassed in grandeur except it may be by the view of the Savoy Alps rising from Lake 
Leman, and seen from the crest of the Jura by the traveller descending towards the beautiful city of 
Geneva from France.” 
It is one of the attractions of Geological investigation that it frequently calls the imagination into 
play in the endeavour to reproduce to the mind the physical features of the earth’s surface in past times. 
In using our imaginative faculties we have before us the scenery of the existing landscape to assist us ; 
and, with this as our guide, we can picture to our minds with much certainty that of past Geological times. 
This being so, it is surely allowable, in presence of such varied and stupendous physical features as 
those we are now contemplating, to endeavour to picture to our minds the character of the scenery 
bordering the Atlantic coast at a time when Nature confronted our imaginary spectator with features so 
striking and so grand ! 
1 These have been recognised by Dr. Nansen, Professor Spencer, and others. M. Elisée Reclus abandons the attempt to explain the origin 
of this remarkable “gulf” (The Ocean, vol. i. p. 7). 
2 As I beheld the scene half a century ago, before the snowfields and glaciers had receded to their present diminutive dimensions. 
