THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA 5 



lands and plateaus hidden by hundreds of 

 fathoms of water; vast mountain chains with 

 their topmost peaks far beneath the restless 

 waves and enormous depressions and mighty 

 canons so deep that the loftiest of our moun- 

 tains — the towering Alps, the cloud-piercing 

 Andes or even Mount Everest itself — might 

 be dropped into the deep and their summits 

 would disappear beneath many fathoms of 

 water. This may sound like an exaggeration, 

 but off Porto Rico dredging has been done in 

 over four thousand fathoms (24,000 feet), 

 and spots have been sounded which were over 

 nine miles in depth in the South Atlantic. It 

 is indeed a difficult matter to imagine the vast- 

 ness of these great submarine plains, the ter- 

 rific abysses and fathomless canons, the preci- 

 pices and abrupt slopes which exist beneath 

 the sea. 



One cannot conceive of the grandeur such 

 scenes would present if bared to human 

 eyes. For example, the low-lying Bahama 

 Islands give us no impression of the tremen- 

 dous heights and marvellous immensity of the 

 ocean-bed about them. Should this portion 



