SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. 3 



been much more considerable. This is proved by the 

 degradation of mountains, and by the formation of 

 submarine deposits ; circumstances by which there is 

 a constant tendency to restore the mean diameter 

 throughout the globe, and thus to afford the means, 

 not only of producing at some future time a spheroid 

 more regular than the present, but of conducing to- 

 wards the perfection of that figure treated of in the 

 last Chapter. 



Little as we know respecting the form of the bottom 

 of the sea, it is still certain that it possesses, like the 

 surface of the dry land, its mountains and valleys. 

 The soundings of mariners, limited as they yet are, 

 have proved that which might have been inferred 

 without experiment. Between Greenland and Ame- 

 rica, this shoaling of the water produces that sub- 

 marine hill on which the icebergs ground and rest so 

 late in the summer as to impede the navigation across 

 the bay when it is free along the shores. On the 

 coasts of Newfoundland, and in many places round 

 our own islands, similar elevations are the favourite 

 resorts of Cod and other fish, producing the cod banks 

 of fishermen; while those hills, elevated to a still 

 greater altitude, form the islands that are every where 

 scattered over the ocean. The sounding line often 

 detects the forms and extent of these when the depths 

 are not too considerable, and discovers, that as on 

 shore, they vary in the steepness of their acclivities. 

 In the same way, vallies are found depressed beneath 

 the general surface of the bottom; as are the beds of 

 our lakes on the land: and on the coast of Shetland, 

 these vallies, presenting a sudden depth of seven 

 hundred feet, or more, are the favourite haunts of 

 the Ling, as the hills are of the Cod. 



Were it not known to be the fact, it might easily 



VOL. I, D 



