208 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE BASIN OF THE ATLANTIC. 



Plate XL, ^ 439. — Height of Chimborazo above the Bottom of the Sea, 440.— Orog- 

 raphy of Oceanic Basins, 441.— The deepest Place in the Atlantic, 442.— The Bot- 

 tom OF THE Atlantic : The UtiUty of Deep-sea Soundings, 445.— A telegraphic 

 Plateau across the Atlantic, 446.— Specimens from it, 447.— A microscopic Exam- 

 ination of them, 448. — Brooke's Deep-sea Lead presents the Sea in a new Light, 

 453. — The Agents at work upon the Bottom of the Sea, 454. — How the Ocean is 

 prevented from growing salter, 458. — Knowledge of our Planet to be derived from 

 the Bottom of the Sea, 460. 



439. The Basin of the Atlantic, according to the deep-sea 

 soundings made by the American Navy, in the manner described 

 in the foregoing chapter, is shown on Plate XI. This plate refers 

 chiefly to that part of the Atlantic which is included within our 

 hemisphere. 



440. In its entire length, the basin of this sea is a long trough, 

 separating the Old World from the New, and extending probably 

 from pole to pole. 



This ocean-furrow was scored into the solid crust of our planet 

 by the Almighty hand, that there the waters which " he called 

 seas" might be gathered together, so as to " let the dry land ap- 

 pear," and fit the earth for the habitation of man. 



From the top of Chimborazo to the bottom of the Atlantic, at 

 the deepest place yet reached by the plummet in the North At- 

 lantic, the distance, in a vertical line, is nine miles. 



Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose 

 to view this great sea-gash, which separates continents, and extends 

 from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it would present a scene the most 

 rugged, grand, and imposing. The very ribs of the solid earth, 

 with the foundations of the sea, would be brought to light, and we 

 should have presented to us at one view, in the empty cradle of 

 the ocean, " a thousand fearful wrecks," with that dreadful array 

 of dead men's skulls, great anchors, heaps of pearl and inestima- 

 ble stones, which, in the poet's eye, lie scattered in the bottom of 

 the sea, making it hideous with siirhts of ugly death. 



