CLASSIFICATION OF THE OCEANS AND SEAS 11 



SCHEME OF CLASSIFICATION 



1. Oceans with independent tidal waves and currents. 



2. Seas with dependent systems. 



(A.) Dependent, influenced by ocean tidal streams and 

 currents : 



(a) With through flowing current Caribbean 



Sea, Bass Straits. 



(b) With partly through flowing current of 



oceanic characteristics Red Sea, Aus- 

 tralasian Sea, China Sea, Irish Sea and 

 Channel. 



Practically no current Gulf of California and 

 Persian Gulf. 



(c) Current partly of oceanic origin, partly 



meteorological Mediterranean, Japan 

 Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea. 

 (B.) Dependent, but mainly due to influence of land 



drainage Arctic " Ocean," Baltic, Hudson Bay, 



Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



6. Classification according to Origin. 



An enclosed sea may be compared to a vessel, such as a 

 kettle, containing water. We are not concerned with the 

 nature of the enclosing material so much as with the nature of 

 the contents. It is difficult for a land-dweller to take up the 

 suitable point of view, which would be that of an educated seal, 

 regarding the sea as all-important, and the land as a mere 

 excrescence containing the sea. 



Suess has classified seas according* to their origin, but 

 geological knowledge is not sufficiently advanced to enable 

 us to give a complete classification of seas according to their 

 origin. 



The present shape of the earth is due to a shrinkage caused 

 by cooling. The oceans, with their enormous depths, are the 

 results of contraction of the earth's radius at those points. 



Probably the present situation of the great oceans has 



