2 THE NOETH-EAST ATLANTIC. 



islands, St. George's and EngHish Channels, the North Sea and the Baltic. 

 Besides the great plateau of the British Isles there are others of smaller extent, 

 including those of Rockall, the Fiiroer, Iceland, and Jan Mayen. From Scotland 

 to Greenland there extends a submarine isthmus, whose elevation has not yet been 

 quite determined, but whose lowest parts between the Orkneys and the Faroer 

 bank are less than 380 fathoms below the sur^ice of the water, with a mean depth 

 of 270 fathoms between the Faroer and Iceland. This last section seems to be of 

 volcanic origin, and it is probable that submarine action has contributed to the 

 separation of the North Atlantic waters into two distinct basins. The Eockall 

 plateau is connected with the Hebrides by a ridge with a mean depth of 820 

 fathoms — about the same as that of the entire eastern basin between Iceland and 

 Norway, or one- third of the approximate depth of all the oceanic waters. 



It was formerly supposed that the Northern Ocean diminished in depth as 

 it approached the pole, but the Swedish exploration of 1868 has entirely 

 exploded this idea. About 180 miles west of Spitzbergen the plummet measured 

 2,650 fathoms, and in the highest latitudes where soundings have been taken a 

 depth of 1,370 fathoms has been revealed. Scoresby found 1,176 fathoms between 

 Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen in 1818, so that northwards as well as southwards 

 the shallow European waters are bounded by deep troughs. 



The polar icebergs, advancing more or less southwards with the alternations of 

 the seasons, also form a natural line of separation for the European basins. It is 

 remarkable that the bed of the ocean presents in its reliefs features analogous to 

 those of the neighbouring continents. Were the waters to subside 1,000 fathoms, 

 there would be revealed two peninsulas between Europe and Greenland, projecting 

 southwards like those of Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. And were a 

 further subsidence of 1,000 fathoms to take place, it would disclose east of 

 Newfoundland another and more extensive peninsula, with numerous secondary 

 ramifications, also stretching southwards, while the ridge now separating the 

 western and eastern oceanic basins would appear as an isthmus connecting the 

 northern lands with a vast peninsula similarly extending north and south beyond 

 the Azores. According to mediaeval legends formerly figured on marine charts 

 as ascertained facts, one of these submerged peninsulas was still visible above the 

 surface when the earliest seafarers visited these regions. The vanished land bore 

 the name of the " drowned land of Buss," and it has by some been associated with 

 the island of Finlandia, discovered by the Venetian brothers Zeno at the end of 

 the fourteenth century, but which has since been sought for in vain. 



The movements of the Atlantic, like those of other seas, are due to various 

 causes, but are distinguished by their vast proportions and lack of uniformity. 

 Although the phenomena they present have nowhere else been more carefully 

 studied, many problems still remain to be determined. For their solution more is 

 needed than a knowledge of the surface waters ; account must be also taken of the 

 counter-currents, of the varying temperature and saline character of the ocean 

 throughout its entire depth. 



Thanks to their daily recurrence, the normal course of the tides is much 



