DEEP SOUNDINGS. 385 



line, or 27,600 feet. The method of taking 

 this deep sounding is represented in the cut. 

 The depth of the ocean is, however, by no 

 means uniform, in consequence of the inequa- 

 lities of surface at the bottom. Could we 

 suppose the ocean emptied, and the bottom 

 exposed, we should behold a great cavity very 

 different from that of our imaginings. Far from 

 its surface being smooth and uniform, like the 

 sides and bottom of some vast bowl, it would 

 be seen that many of the varieties of hill and 

 dale, of mountain, rock, valley, and level plain, 

 which give variety to the aspect of nature on 

 land, are repeated in the ocean, though doubt- 

 less a certain smoothness of aspect would be 

 in general found to overspread these features, 

 greater than we behold on land, in consequence 

 of the levelling influence of currents, and of the 

 deposit of sand and detritus.* That such is 

 really the case, is evident from the facts ob- 

 served in sounding by means of the lead. Shoals, 

 for example, which extend for miles, and are 

 surrounded on every side by deep water, where 

 the lead cannot find a bottom, are manifestly 

 mountains in the ocean, and would be seen as 

 such were all the water removed. Sometimes 

 the shore of a country falls with a very gentle 



* Locke well and simply says, "The sea is a collection 

 of waters in the deep valleys of the earth." 



2 c 



