APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 63 



The result of all these operations is, that we know 

 the contours and the nature of the surface-soil 

 covered by the North Atlantic for a distance of 1,700 

 miles from east to west, as well as we know that of 

 any part of the dry land. It is a prodigious plain 

 one of the widest and most even plains in the world. 

 If the sea were drained off, you might drive a 

 waggon all the way from Valentia, on the west 

 coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland. 

 And, except upon one sharp incline about 200 miles 

 from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would 

 even be necessary to put the skid on, so gentle are 

 the ascents and descents upon that long route. 

 From Valentia the road would lie down-hill for 

 about 200 miles to the point at which the bottom is 

 now covered by 1,700 fathoms of sea- water. Then 

 would come the central plain, more than a thousand 

 miles wide, the inequalities of the surface of which 

 would be hardly perceptible, though the depth of 

 water upon it now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet ; 

 and there are places in which Mont Blanc might be 

 sunk without showing its peak above water. Beyond 

 this, the ascent on the American side commences, 

 and gradually leads, for about 300 miles, to the 

 Newfoundland shore. 



When we consider that the remains of more than 

 three thousand distinct species of aquatic animals 

 have been discovered among the fossils of the chalk, 

 that the great majority of them are of such forms as 

 are now met with only in the sea, and that there is 

 no reason to believe that any one of them inhabited 

 fresh water the collateral evidence that the chalk 

 represents an ancient sea-bottom acquires as great 

 force as the proof derived from the nature of the 

 chalk itself. I think you will now allow that I 



