324 CAV. W. r. JERVIS, F.G.S., ox TlfALASSOnnAPllICAI, A\n 



ordinary 50 fathoms depth. 8aeh obstruction of the 

 submerged valley is })lanily established, since the bed of 

 the sea for at least another 2a miles further out consists of 

 sand and shingle, which the A^arious currents have deposited 

 and equally distributed in their lateral course, and so have 

 absolutely obliterated the merest further traces of the 

 Bredsund dybet. 



No human being ever attempted to count the islets and 

 rocks, a multitude of Avhicli are sunken, all along the Avest 

 coast of Norway — not even the swarm of rocks off the coast 

 of Nordmark. where the powerful currents rush in opposite- 

 directions, and change Avith the Avinds, the ebb and flow of 

 the tides, and the phases of the moon — all such ideas woidd 

 soon be abandoned. But. Avith the exception of the Lofoden 

 islands, it is particularly to be noti('ed that none of the 

 cliamiels runnhuj in the direction parallel to the coast, tchatevrr 

 he their width, are deep. The Avhole of these facts point to 

 the subsidence of mountains of all heights, and mountain 

 slo[)es preserving traces of their original form. This last, 

 during geological eras, having been characteristically 

 irregular in outline, Avould easily lead us to understand the 

 occurrence of miniature islands, while the sunken rocks 

 would be the remains of the harder crystalline rocks at 

 their base. The j\Iaelstr<)m is a Avell-known classical 

 ■example of the force of conflicting currents at given phases 

 •ot the oceanic tides. 



§ II. Pal.^oscaxdixavian Channel. 



A second line of 100 fathom soimdings skirts the Danish 

 province of Jutland. Proceeding due south from 

 Christiansand it lies at the distance of 30 miles from the 

 Norwegian coast. This isobath runs for 120 miles Avestward, 

 always preserAang, as near as })ossible, the same distance 

 from the shores of Norway — as though these lines Avere ares 

 of concentric circles — as far as a point S.W. of Ekersuiul. 

 From thence it trends to the N.AV. as far as Lat. G0° 45' N., 

 where it lies at a distance of 50 miles from the Norwegian 

 mainland. A short distance further on, Lat. 61° N., it is 

 only 100 miles distant, due east, from Saxavord Hill, the 

 extremity of Unst, in the Shetland Islands. 



This line is, in i'act, the eastern boundary of the British 

 platform, or Avhat might be more elegantly termed PaUco- 

 britannia. 



