2 "ALBATROSS" EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



fathoms) was found about 100 miles southwest of Mariato Point. The depth 

 then continued to show about 1700 fathoms for nearly 200 miles, and 

 shoaled very gradually to 1418 fathoms about 80 miles from Chatham 

 Island. From this point it sloped quite rapidly, the 1000-fathom line 

 being not more than 60 miles from Chatham Island. We ran a short line 

 south of Hood Island, and found a somewhat steeper slope to that face of 

 the Galapagos, reaching over 1700 fathoms in a distance of less than 50 

 miles ; the bottom then remained comparatively flat, attaining a depth of 

 2000 fathoms about 100 miles farther south. This depth we carried east- 

 ward on a line to Aguja Point (PI. 7). When half-way, the soundings had 

 increased to over 2200 fathoms, and remained near that depth to within 

 60 miles of the coast, when the depth rapidly shoaled. From Aguja Point 

 we ran a line of soundings to the southwest, to a point about 675 miles west 

 of Callao (PI. 6, fig. 1) ; on this line the depth gradually increased from 

 2200 fathoms, 100 miles off the Point, to nearly 2500 fathoms. On run- 

 ning east to Callao (PI. 9), the depth soon increased to about 2600 fathoms, 

 and at a distance of about 80 miles off Callao we dropped into the Milne- 

 Edwards Deep and found a depth of over 3200 fathoms. We spent a couple 

 of days in developing this Deep, making soundings of 1490, 2845, 458, 1949, 

 2338, and 3120 fathoms; showing a great in-egularity of the bottom within 

 a comparatively limited area of less than 60 miles in diameter. 



The soundings taken to the south of the Galapagos (Pis. 4, 5), developed 

 the outline of the 1500-fathom curve as well as that of the 2000-fathom 

 line to the south and west, showing that the latter enclosed a very much 

 larger area (PL 1) than had been inferred from the soundings taken in 1891. 

 Our soundings also showed that the Guatemala Basin was enclosed by the 

 2000-fathora line, forming a large elliptical area to the west of the Mexican 

 and Guatemalan coast (PI. 1). 



The soundings we made to the eastward from the Galapagos to the South 

 American coast (Pis. 7-9, PI. 10, fig. l), and to the westward of Callao, as 

 well as on the line from Callao to Easter Island, all indicate a gradual 

 deepening to the eastward, to form the northern part of a basin I have 

 called the Bowers Basin (PI. 1), and which is independent of what has 

 been called on the " Challenger " Charts the Buchan Basin, with greatest 

 depths of 2400 to over 2700 fathoms, and passing at several points near the 

 coast to Milne-Edwards Deep, Ilaeckel Deep, Kriimmel Deep, Bartholomew 

 Deep, and Richards Deep, some of them with a depth of over 4000 fathoms. 



