FISHING-GROUNDS 59 



From the Cap de Creus to Marseilles the belt between the 

 25-fathom and the 5o-fathom lines consists of a sheet of 

 colloidal, yellowish-grey ooze, and from Marseilles to Nice 

 of muddy sands and gravels, which I had occasion to 

 study on board the yacht Andree. Between the 5o-fathom 

 and the loo-fathom lines we find everywhere a thick bed 

 of sand and coarse gravel, whence emerge the crests of 

 a series of rocks disposed along a line from the Pyrenees 

 to the Alps. 



To the east of Banyuls the edge of the Mediterranean 

 shelf is cut up by ravines known as recks, which are from 

 300 to 350 fathoms in depth. To the south of the island 

 of Riou the slope is almost vertical, and is known as the 

 Peyssonnel Cliff. It falls 350 fathoms, but its upper 

 portion is interrupted by a projecting platform, known 

 as the Marsilli plateau. To the east of the Peyssonnel 

 Cliff the edge of the shelf forms a projecting spur known 

 as the Blanquieres bank. 



At the foot of the slope, at a depth varying from 350 

 to 500 fathoms, where the temperature is constant and 

 uniform at 54*8, the deep bottoms are covered with 

 deep-sea corals, stiff but plastic muds, and, in the deepest 

 depths of all, with a fine, soft, greenish-yellow ooze. 



Ill 



There are fishing-grounds which, although at a great 

 distance from France, are worked by French vessels. 

 Everyone knows them. They are the Newfoundland and 

 the Iceland banks, the banks of the North Sea, including 

 the Dogger, the African ledge off Morocco, and the Baie 

 du Lvrier. 



The North Sea is only a portion of the continental 

 plateau of the Atlantic. If the sea were suddenly to sink 

 some 40 fathoms, one might travel afoot, on horseback, 



