Distribution of Land and Water. 



In support of the above generalisation, we may point to the 

 following facts as established by recent soundings (Plates 2 

 and 3). The ioo-fathom line, as is well known, joins the 

 whole of the British Islands, including the Hebrides, Orkneys, 

 and Shetland Islands, to the continent of Europe. It forms a 

 broad band connecting the Asiatic and American continents 

 across Behring Strait. It unites Australia, Papua, and 

 Tasmania in a single area of elevation, which, together with 

 the intervening archipelago of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, 

 the Moluccas, and the Philippines, may be looked upon as a 

 prolongation of the continent of Asia. It joins Ceylon to 

 Hindostan, and the Falkland Islands to the South American 

 continent. The 500-fathom line connects North America, 

 Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, and the continent 

 of Europe, the only unexplored space being Denmark Strait, 

 between Iceland and Greenland, where the soundings may 

 exceed the above depth. The 1000-fathom line unites New 

 Zealand with Australia, Madagascar with Africa, and nearly 

 exhausts the depth of the more or less land-locked seas which lie 

 between Australia and Asia, Africa and Europe, South and 

 North America, and of the seas situated within the Arctic 

 and Antarctic Circles. The Cape de Verde Islands and the 

 Canaries belong to Africa, Madeira to Europe, and less than 

 500 fathoms divide Norway from Spitzbergen. 



Depths from 100 to 1000 fathoms may be considered as 

 shallow in comparison with the prevailing depths from 2000 to 

 3000 fathoms of the principal oceanic basins, and sufficient to 

 establish a connection between islands and continents, the more 

 so as we generally find one or more islands occupying the 

 intervening space, thus betraying the common link between 

 them. 



The result of this examination is that all the larger land 

 masses compose an area of elevation, which, after nearly com- 



