THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA 7 



short, abrupt slope of the western coast. Be- 

 yond the limits of these continental shelves the 

 bottom usually drops very rapidly to great 

 depths, often to two thousand fathoms or more 

 in a short distance. 



Along our Atlantic coast from Cape Hat- 

 teras to George's Banks the width of the con- 

 tinental shelf varies from fifteen miles at Cape 

 Hatteras to nearly one hundred miles off 

 southern New England, while on the Grand 

 Banks off Maine the shelf extends out for 

 nearly two hundred miles. Here and there 

 wide tongues or inlets extend towards the coast 

 through this gently-sloping plateau, and off 

 Cape Cod, Maine, and Cape Sable the true 

 ocean depths extend to within fifteen or twenty 

 miles of the shores. Between Cape Hatteras 

 and the Bahamas there is a vast triangular 

 plateau sloping gradually from the shore to a 

 depth of six hundred fathoms and then dip- 

 ping sharply to the floor of the Atlantic. 

 Along the coasts the one hundred fathom line 

 runs almost parallel to the shore from 

 George's Banks to Hatteras, and almost paral- 

 lel with this line and at no place over fifteen 



