THE SPRING AXD SUMMER OF 1S94 4^5 



separate strands, and a fresh, pliant lead-line manufact- 

 ured by twisting two of these strands together. In this 

 way we made a line of between 4000 and 5000 metres 

 (2150 to 2700 fathoms) long, and could now at last 

 reach the bottom. The depth proved to range between 

 3300 and 3900 metres (1800 to 2100 fathoms). 



This was a remarkable discovery, for, as I have fre- 

 quently mentioned, the unknown polar basin has always 

 been supposed to be shallow, with numerous unknown 

 lands and islands. I, too, had assumed it to be shallow 

 when I sketched out my plan (see page 24), and had 

 thought it was traversed by a deep channel which might 

 possibly be a continuation of the deep channel in the 

 North Atlantic (see page 28). 



From this assumption of a shallow Polar Sea it was 

 concluded that the regions about the Pole had formerly 

 been covered with an extensive tract of land, of which the 

 existing islands are simply the remains. This extensive 

 tract of polar land was furthermore assumed to have been 

 the nursery of many of our animal and plant forms, 

 whence they had found their way to lower latitudes. 

 These conjectures now appear to rest on a somewhat 

 infirm basis. 



This great depth indicates that here, at all events, 

 there has not been land in any very recent geological 

 period ; and this depth is, no doubt, as old as the depth 

 of the Atlantic Ocean, of which it is almost certainly a 

 part. 



