CHAP. V.J 



DEEP-SEA SOUNDING. 



235 



the level of the plateau a height of 16,206 feet (2,701 

 fathoms), a little more than the height of Mont 

 Blanc above the sea-level. 



Accurate soundings are as yet much too distant 

 to justify anything like a detailed contour map of the 

 hed of the Atlantic, and such a sketch as the one 

 here given can only be regarded as a first rough 

 draft. Nothing, however, can give a more erroneous 

 or exaggerated conception of its outline than the 

 ideal section in Captain Maury's ' Physical Geo- 

 graphy of the Sea/ although it is in a certain sense 

 correct. 



According to our present information, we must 

 regard the Atlantic Ocean as covering a vast region 

 of wide shallow valleys and undulating plains, with 

 a few groups of volcanic mountains, insignificant 

 both in height and extent, when we consider the 

 enormous area of the ocean bed. 



FROM THE HILLS ABOVE THORSHAV*. 



