THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA 



Here in the womb of the world here on the tie-ribs of earth. 



RUDYARD KIPLING. 



THE first recorded attempt to sound the depths of the 

 ocean was made early in the year 1521, in the South 

 Pacific, by Ferdinand Magellan. He had traversed the 

 dangerous straits destined to bear his name during 

 the previous November, and emerged on the 28th of 

 that month into the open ocean. For three months he 

 sailed across the Pacific, and in the middle of March, 

 1521, came to anchor off the islands now known as the 

 Philippines. Here Magellan was killed in a conflict 

 with the natives. The records of his wonderful feat 

 were brought to Spain during the following year by 

 one of his ships, the Victoria; and amidst the profound 

 sensation caused by the news of this voyage, which 

 has been called ' the greatest event in the most remark- 

 able period of the world's history,' it is probable that 

 his modest attempt to sound the ocean failed to attract 

 the attention it deserved. Magellan's sounding-lines 

 were at most some two hundred fathoms in length, 

 and he failed to touch bottom ; from which he * some- 

 what naively concluded that he had reached the 

 deepest part of the ocean.' 



It was more than two hundred years later that the 

 first serious study of the bed of the sea was under- 

 taken by the French geographer Philippe Buache, 



16 



