DEPTH OF THE SEA. 91 



places of the ocean have been sounded, and various 

 discoveries made connected with them; in the 

 latter the less remote objects of the heavens have 

 been examined, such as the various planetary 

 bodies of the solar system. But of the profound 

 abysses of the sea little is known, and as to the 

 far distant fixed stars our efforts accomplish little 

 more than to prove how slight is our knowledge 

 of them, and how much we have to learn. 



The soundings taken in the Mediterranean 

 prove that sea to be of enormous depth. In the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, where the passage is narrowest, 

 there is a depth of 500 fathoms. Between Gibraltar 

 and Ceuta, Capt. Smyth found a depth of 950 

 fathoms. At Nice, within a short distance from 

 shore, Saussure found the water to be 2,000 feet 

 deep, and M. Berard, in another place, could not 

 reach the bottom with a line of 6,000 feet. Lyell 

 and others express the opinion that the central 

 abysses of the Mediterranean are at least as deep 

 as the Alps are high; but this is only a conjecture. 



Within the last few years great depths, in 

 some parts of the ocean, have been sounded, and 

 specimens of the soil at the bottom have been 

 obtained. By means of a simple line attached 

 to a heavy cannon-ball, Capt. Denham, of H.M. 

 ship " Herald," sounded the South Atlantic Ocean 

 to the depth of 46,000 feet, and Lieut. Parker, of 

 the U.S. frigate " Congress," in the same region 

 let go his plummet, and saw it run out 50,000 feet 

 without apparently touching the bottom. Lieut. 

 Walsh, of the U.S. schooner " Taney," attempted 



