DEPTH OF THE AECTIC AND ANTARCTIC SEAS. 19 



With respect to Antarctic latitudes, 1,722 fathoms have/e^ii 

 found between the 63rd and 64th degrees: near the 78th de- 

 gree, at the very side of the enormous barrier of ice, which hinders 

 Ly advance towards the pole. Sir James Ross has touched the 

 bottom at 415 fathoms. And this is all the information which 

 navigators have given us. The icy sea of the north is better known, 

 at least in some parts. To the north of Siberia, the bed of the sea 

 ioatinuing the slope of the hardly-inclined " tundras," e.ienA. 

 towards the pole with such a slight declivity that at 156 -^^/™- 

 the coast the lead only shows a mean of from 14 to lo fathoms 

 Around Spitzbergen and the western shores of Scandmavm the 

 sea is much deeper, and on the precipitous coast of Norway its 

 abysses join the deep channel which separates Scandinavia from the 

 lesser depths of the North Sea. More to the west, between 

 Scotland and Iceland, the parts explored by McChntock, with the 

 view of laving the telegraphic cable, are rarely more than rf-» 

 fathoms, and nowhere present a depth of water of m«^e Af^ b/U 

 fathoms. Between Iceland and Greenland a depth of 1.547 tathoms 

 has been sounded, and in Baffin's Straits are abysses of nearly Z,W^ 

 fathoms. This great depression makes Greenland a country qmte 

 distinct from the American continent. The plateau upon which 

 this grand island rests presents slopes relatively very steep. Un 

 the western side the declivity is in certain places one yard tor every 

 five of distance, while the western slopes of the submarine plateau ot 

 Ireland, which are among the most rapid in all the ocean, have 

 about one yard of fall for every eight yards of length.* 



We can see clearly that the state of our knowledge of the subter- 

 ranean surface is still very limited ; yet the sum of the ^cts whic^ 

 have been already scientifically confirmed gives a great probability 

 to the opinion, very natural on other grounds, that the oceans deepen 

 gradually towards the south, where the waters occupy the greatest 

 extent on our planet. The celebrated chemist and geologis , Bischot 

 thinks we may, conclude from the comparison of all the soundings, that 

 the bottom of the sea is on an average as near the centre ot the globe 

 as the poles themselves. In certain latitudes, and notably towards 

 the 78th degree north, the terrestrial radius drawn to the bottom ot 

 the sea is even less than that at the pole, which perhaps is to 

 be attributed to the wearing away of the soil by icebergs. Uut, 

 on the other hand, in the greater part of the ocean the bottom ot the 

 sea is a little more distant from the centre than the poles, which doubt- 

 » Wallicli, Xorth Allantk Sea-led, p. 18. 

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