THE SOUTHERN OCEAN 27 



CHAPTER IV. OUR INADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE 

 OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 



From this brief reference to our limited 

 knowledge of the Southern Ocean, we may pass 

 to that vaster subject our ignorance of the 

 Southern Ocean. Our knowledge of the other 

 oceans shows that the sea floors have geogra- 

 phical forms as varied as those of the land. 

 They have their broad, sinuous valleys ; their 

 deep, steep walled canyons ; their mountain 

 chains, composed of numerous mountain ranges, 

 of which the highest peaks project above the 

 sea surface as islands. They have their broad 

 plateaus, and their widespread, open basins, 

 both floored by "the great grey level plains of 

 ooze." The submarine surface is as varied as 

 that of the land, and we must know its contours 

 before we can form any adequate idea of the 

 undulations of the earth's crust. Oceanographic 

 work, in fact, during the last 30 years, has 

 revealed to us a new world, vaster than that 

 discovered by Columbus, with a geography as 

 complex, and a geology as interesting, and an 

 economic importance that is perhaps as great. 

 We have as yet no adequate idea of the form of 

 the floor of the Southern Ocean. What con- 

 ception should we have of the structure of 

 Australia, if we had to guess its contours from 

 points as far scattered as those we know in the 



