FISHING-GROUNDS 57 



the soundings being from 70 to 100 fathoms. The 

 Rochebonne banks, 40 miles west of the He de R6, 

 have an area of 950 square miles. Soundings are 

 from 24 to 48 fathoms, excepting in the centre, where 

 there is a shoal covered by only a few feet of water 

 from 9 to 24 at low tide. The Jones banks and 

 the Nymph banks are situated at the entrance to 

 the Irish Sea. The Start banks surround the Eddystone 

 light, off Plymouth Bay, and are less than 35 fathoms 

 below the surface. The most celebrated of the ditches 

 is the Hague ditch, to the NW. of the Cape of that 

 name. Its length is n miles, its width three-quarters 

 of a mile, and its depth from 32 to 50 fathoms. The 

 sides are not particularly steep, but are rocky, and are 

 covered with pebbles, some of which are as much as 

 2 Ibs. in weight. 



The loo-fathom line, or " mud line," coincides 

 almost everywhere with the edge of the continental 

 plateau. At this line begins the descent into the depths 

 of the ocean depths of 9,000 and 10,000 feet. The 

 slope is gradual, but in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Breton there is a breach in the wall. Here and there 

 a few upstanding rocks break the uniformity of the 

 oceanic mud. From 100 to 650 fathoms this mud 

 is grey or bluish. Lower still are deeper layers of 

 water, depths and abysses which we shall not have 

 to deal with here. In these depths there is continual 

 darkness, the temperature is not far from freezing-point, 

 and eternal peace is supreme. 



II 



From the Gulf of Rosas to Cape Cerberus the coast, 

 built of ancient rocks, is cut up by indentations like the 

 Breton rias and the Norwegian fjords. At the edge of 



