18 



THE OCEAK 



been discovered, called " the Great Swatch/^ which is no less than 

 2,187 fathoms deep, and is bounded on the north, east, and west by 

 leposits of mud and ooze, which the lead touches at some five or 

 ten fathoms. The formation of this singular funnel is perhaps due 

 to an eddy of tidal waters, commencing precisely at that spot where 

 the alluvium of the Ganges is brought down to mingle with the sea* 

 Almost all the Indian Archipelago, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the 

 adjacent islands, rest on a submarine bank, having on an average 

 only a depth of 33 fathoms, and even at the deepest places only 55 

 fothoms. This is probably the base of an ancient continent, of which 

 the innumerable islands, scattered over the sea in these latitudes, are 



Fig. 8.-Depths of the Sea at the mouth of the Gaiiges.+ 



the remains. Another bank, extending for 435 miles to the north 

 and north-west of Australia, supports that continent, and all the 

 neighbourmg islands, including ^ew Guinea. A channel of very 

 deep water, not yet sounded, separates from the Asiatic archipela-o 

 those higher Australian levels which also seem to be only the an- 

 cient fragments of vanished lands.- It is around these two great 

 contmental basements that the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, pro- 

 perly so called, commence. - 



* ^^^ ^" ^"^' ■"■• *^® se<^^^OTi entitled, Hivers. 

 + o v , ^^""^ "^^""^^^ ^^ cross-shading represents the ' Great Swatch ' 



, See below, the section entitled, SJ>ores ami Islands, and The Earth and its Fauna. 



