452 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



essentially misleadiu^, for wliile tlie north-eastern part of 

 the sea is characterized bj'^ depths less than 100 fathoms, 

 the western and south-western part is very deep. That 

 part of the Pacific Ocean parallel and adjacent to the Kurile 

 Islands is, in fact, one of the deepest oceanic valleys known, 

 "Eiicyciop»-and has been named the " Tuscarora Deep," from soundings 

 di'1 ^''.'>"»^?,\' obtained by the United States vessel " Tuscarora" at a 



vol xviii P- l^i- *^ 



depth of over 4,600 fathoms, or about 5| miles. It appears 

 from the coutigiiration of the ocean bottom and the trend 

 of the coast that this great depression actually extends 



Ibid., Plate iuto the wcsteru part of Behring Sea, which, as very few 

 ^^' soundings have as yet been made in it, may considerably 



exceed the mean depth of the Pacific Ocean as a whole, 

 stated generally as averaging about 2,500 ftithoms. 



Ibid.. p. 120. rj^^^ General Chart of Alaska published by the United 

 States Coast Survey gives only a few soundings in the 

 extreme easterly corner of the deep jjortion of Behring 

 Sea, the greatest being 2,147 fathoms; the remaining deep 

 portion is a blank on the Map. Vivien de St. Martin, on 

 p. 408 of vol. iv of his "Dictionary," states that a soui.d- 

 ing of 4,940 metres (2,700 fathoms) was obtained north of 

 the Commander Islands; it is not shown on the Coast 

 Survey Map. With the above facts in view, the actual 

 average depth of Behring Sea must be considered to be as 

 yet a matter of conjecture only. All that can be said at 

 present, with the few soundings obtained, is that a con- 

 siderable portion of Behring Sea, nearly one-half, is not 

 inferior in depth to the main body of the ocean. 



In respect to the great depth of a large part of its area, 

 and the coalescence of this depression with the best- 

 marked oceanic trough of the North Pacific, Behring Sea, 

 in fact, stands in marked contrast with other seas subsid- 



ibid., Plate iary to and recognized as forming portions of the Pacific, 

 i^- such as Okhotsk Sea, Sea of Japan, Yellow Sea, and China 



Sea. It is wholly different from such a uniformly shallow 

 sea as the North Sea or German Ocean, which, in so far as 

 this single fact goes, might with greater reason be stated 

 to be distinct from the Atlantic Ocean. 



The shallow character of the eastern portion of Behring 

 Sea is, however, returned to on a later page of the Case of 

 the United States, where it is stated that this — 



United States prevents any icebergs from reaching the Pribyloff Islands. 

 Case D 19 



' ' Eeferring to the Charts, it is found that the greatest 



depth of Behring Strait is about 30 fathoms, and that in 

 coiiseipience no icebergs, properly so called, can enter 

 Behring Sea, while any masses of ice which could j^ass the 

 Straits would, according to the Charts, have ample depth 



of water to float all round the Pribyloff Islands. 

 110 The actual character of the ice found in Behring 



Sea appears from the following quotation: 



Extract from The ice in Behring Sea, although it is made np entirely of young ice 

 "lieport of lee every year, may he divided into two kinds, viz., that which forms in 

 and Ice Move- ^]^^ j^jg f^ji ^nd early winter, and is telescoped and piled into heavy 

 SeTand" he Ar^ ™'^^*'*^® during the sliifting gales; and, secondly, that which forms in 

 tic Basin," by the late winter and early spring in the spaces left hy the old ice mov- 

 Ensign Edward ing. This solid ice probably does not extend to the southward of St. 

 Sinipaon.U.S N., Matthew Island, while the ice below it as far as the southern limit is 

 1890, pp. 7, 9. made up of the newer ice and detached floes of well-broken ic©. 



