20 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



Let us suppose the sea to be suddenly withdrawn 

 from its basin, in order that we may the more clearly 

 apprehend the conformation of the terrestrial crust as 

 a whole, and thus see at a glance the unequal heights 

 and depths which appear to us so considerable, but 

 which, in reality, are very small when compared with 

 the vast bulk of the planet: Let us, in short, sup- 

 pose the earth to be reduced to the same physical 

 condition as the moon, without an atmosphere and 

 without water :* the eye would be arrested by vast 

 ramparts formed of the earth's upheaved strata, and 

 piled to a total height of some ten or eleven miles — 

 the most gigantic of these picturesque eminences 

 corresponding to the Old World, and having its 

 culminating-point in the Himalayas. All around 

 that vast rocky barrier would be seen a deep furrow 

 separating it from the double gibbosity formed 

 by the two Americas ; and taking our stand on the 

 southern extremity of the latter continent, we should 

 descry in the distance the summits of Australia 

 and the neighbouring isles, and the ramparts of 

 the great Austral continent, almost entirely buried 

 under snow and ice. 



As the continents have their highest summits, so 

 the oceans have their deepest gulfs, and these are often 



* Speaking from present appearances ; for, in fact, this point is 

 not yet placed absolutely beyond donbt. — Tn. 



