106 THREE CRUISES OF THE "BLAKE. 



southward, having also a much gentler slope, and forming the 

 edo-e of the Pedi-o Rosalind Bank, the extension of the Hon- 

 duras Mosquito coast, which divides the Caribbean into an east- 

 ern and western basin. After passing the Pedro Rosalind 

 Bank, — the di^dde between the Western and Eastern Carib- 

 bean, — one comes into the valley of the Grand Cayman, the 

 eastern extremity of which is flanked on the one side by the 

 Blue Mountains of Jamaica, on the other by the coast range 

 of Southern Cuba, the highest summits of which rise fully 

 twenty-seven thousand feet above the deepest point of *' Bart- 

 lett Deep," — the extension of the Cuban side of the valley 

 being formed by peaks, often rising to over twenty thousand feet 

 from the bottom of the valley. Compared to such panoramas 

 the finest views of the range of the Alps sink into insignifi- 

 cance ; it is only when we can get a view of portions of the 

 Andes from the sea-coast, or such a panorama as one has from 

 Darjiling, facing the Kinchinjinga range, which towers fully 

 twenty-six thousand feet above the level of the valley at its base, 

 that we get anything approximating to it in grandeur. 



As it has been the practice with geographers to name the 

 hio-hest peaks of our mountain chains after distinguished ex- 

 plorers, so it has become the custom of hydrographers to name 

 the deepest parts of the oceans after distinguished hydrogra- 

 phers. Sigsbee Deep in the Gulf of Mexico, Bartlett Deep 

 in the Western Caribbean, Thomson Deep and those of Nares, 

 the " Challenger," Pourtales, Patterson, Hilgard, and others, 

 have been named in connection with recent deep-sea hydro- 

 graphy. 



The monotony, dreariness, and desolation of the deeper parts 

 of this submarine scenery can scarcely be realized. The most 

 barren terrestrial districts must seem diversified when compared 

 with the vast expanse of ooze which covers the deeper parts of 

 the ocean, — a monotony only relieved by the fall of the dead 

 carcasses of pelagic animals and plants, which slowly find their 

 way from the surface to the bottom, and supply the principal 

 food for the scanty fauna found living there. 



Nearer to the continental masses we find the slopes inhab- 

 ited by a more abundant and more varied fauna, increasing in 



