8 



THE OCEAN WORLD. 



the coast of Scotland, afterwards taking the direction of 

 the Azores, to the north of which bottom was found, 

 consisting of chalk and yellow sand, at 9,600 feet. To 

 the south of Newfoundland the depth was found to 

 be 16,500 feet. In 1856, Lieutenant Berry man, of the 

 American steamer Arctic, completed a line of soundings 

 from St. John, Newfoundland, to Valentia, off the Irish 

 coast; and in 1857, Lieutenant Dayman, of the English 

 steamship Cyclops, repeated the same operation : this last 

 line of soundings, the result of which is represented in 

 the accompanying section, differed slightly from that 

 followed by Lieutenant Berry man. In the Gulf of 

 Mexico the depth does not seem to exceed 7,000 feet. 



The Arctic Ocean has, probably, no great depth. 

 Hence, salt water, following the general law of con- 

 tracting as it cools, until it freezes, no ice can be formed 

 on its surface till the temperature has fallen through its 

 entire depth nearly to freezing point, when the entire 

 mass is consolidated into pack-ice. According to Baron 

 Wrangel, the bottom of the glacial sea, on the north 

 coast of Siberia, forms a gentle slope, and, at the distance 

 of 200 miles from the shore, it is still only from ninety to 

 100 feet. Nevertheless, in Baffin's Bay, Dr. Kane made 

 soundings at 11,600 feet. 



The inequalities of the basin of the Pacific Ocean 

 are, comparatively, unknown to us. The greatest depth 

 observed by Lieutenant Brooke in the great ocean is 

 2,700 fathoms, which he found in 59 north latitude and 

 1 66 east longitude. Applying the theory of waves to 

 the billows propelled from the coast of Japan to Cali- 

 fornia, during the earthquake of the 23rd of December, 

 1854, Professor Bache calculated that the mean depth of 

 this part of the Pacific is 14,400 feet. In the Pacific 

 Ocean, latitude 60 south and 160 east longitude, he 

 found soundings at 14,600 feet about two miles and a 

 half. Another cast of the lead in the Indian Ocean was 

 made in 7,040 fathoms, but without bringing up any soil 

 from the bottom. Among the fragments brought up from 

 the bottom of the Coral Sea, a remarkable absence of 

 calcareous shells was noted, whilst the siliceous frag- 

 ments of sponges were found in great quantities. Other 

 soundings made in the Pacific, at a depth of tour or five 



