THE SUBMARINE BANK 145 



are not to be made by amateurs, and are impossible without a 

 well-found ship with modern gear. But I may make very 

 definite statements about the depths of the ocean, and the 

 submarine slopes of the atoll. Owing to the fact that I have 

 had the soundings, made by the various cable ships of the 

 Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, placed at my disposal 

 (due to the kindness of Mr. F. Hesse, the General Manager of 

 the Company), I am enabled to bring together a great mass of 

 accurate information concerning the nature of the bottom in 

 this part of the Indian Ocean. 



These soundings consist of four different sets of observa- 

 tions. The first, and most valuable, are those made by the 

 cable ship Sherrard Osborne when first an oceanographic 

 survey was made in the region of the atoll, in order to test its 

 suitability to become a cable station. The second set consists 

 of a line of soundings, taken by the cable ship Anglia, to 

 the west and south of the atoll, along the cable route to 

 Rodriguez, and on to Mauritius. The third set was taken by 

 the cable ship Scotia, and the soundings follow the cable 

 route to the south and east to Perth, Australia. The fourth 

 set was made by the cable ship Magnet, when sounding over 

 the route taken by the cable north and east to the Sunda 

 Straits. These various collections of soundings therefore 

 embrace a very wide field of the ocean which has been brought 

 within our accurate knowledge, and they furnish very safe 

 ground for any assertions as to the contour of the ocean bed 

 and the atoll slopes. 



It is of course unnecessary to say that there are many 

 reasons why these sounding lines cannot be reproduced, but 

 the general information derived from them is sufficiently clear 

 without the construction of a detailed chart of their actual 

 routes. The soundings are taken at frequent intervals, and 

 in the route from the atoll to Java there are 75 different 

 soundings over the 6 00-7 00 -mile course ; and from most 

 of these soundings I have examined specimens of the ocean 

 bottom brought up with the apparatus. For the use of these 

 specimens I have to thank the Telegraph Company and their 



