THE SEA. 3 



The Pacific, or Great Ocean, stretches from north to south, from 

 the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle, being bounded on one side by 

 Asia, the island of Sunda, and Australia ; on the other by the west 

 coast of America. This ocean contrasts in a striking manner with 

 the Atlantic : the one has its greatest length from north to south, the 

 other from east to west ; the currents of the Pacific are broad and 

 slow, those of the other narrow and rapid ; the waves of this are low, 

 those of the other very high. If we represent the volume of water 

 which falls into the Pacific by one, that received by the Atlantic will 

 be represented by the figure 5. The Pacific is the calmest of seas, 

 and the Atlantic Ocean is the most stormy. 



The Antarctic Ocean extends from the Antarctic Polar Circle to 

 the South Pole. 



It is remarkable that one half of the globe should Be entirely 

 covered with water, whilst the other contains less of water than dry 

 land. Moreover, the distribution of land and water, if, in considering 

 the germ of the oceanic basins, we compare the hemispheres separated 

 by the Equator and the northern and southern halves of the globe, is 

 found to be very unequal. 



Oceans communicate with continents and islands by coasts, which 

 are said to be scarped when a rocky coast makes a steep and sudden 

 descent to the sea, as in Brittany, Norway, and the west coast of 

 the British Islands. In this kind of coast certain rocky indentations 

 encircle it, sometimes above, sometimes under water, forming a 

 labyrinth of islands, as at the Land's End, Cornwall, where the 

 Scilly Islands form a compact group of from one to two hundred 

 rocky islets, rising out of a deep sea ; or in the case of the Channel, 

 on the opposite coast of France, where the coast makes a sudden 

 descent, forming steep cliffs and leaving an open sea. The coast is 

 said to be flat when it consists of soft argillaceous soil descending to 

 the shore with a gentle slope. Of this description of coast there are 

 two, namely, sandy beaches, and hillocks or dunes. 



What is the average depth of the sea ? It is difficult to give an 

 exact answer to this question, because of the great difficulty met with 

 in taking soundings, caused chiefly by the deviations of submarine 

 currents. No reliable soundings have yet been made in water over 

 five miles in depth. 



B 2 



