30 THE WORLD BENEATH THE WAVES 



traverse a decline so imperceptible as to seem almost 

 level : we should then for another 30 miles descend 

 a sudden and very steep slope, until, at about 40 

 miles from shore, we should reach level ground at a 

 depth of about 11,000 feet below the sea-line. Once 

 there, we should walk for more than 600 miles over 

 a plain as flat as a tea-tray, until we came to a cor- 

 responding ascent up to the Andaman shore. 



In our journey across our supposed dried- up ocean 

 bed, though we should have no scenery to admire, 

 there would be much to interest us in the ground 

 beneath our feet. We should, of course, find numerous 

 remains — shells and skeletons — of all sorts of sea- 

 animals ; but, for reasons to be presently given, we 

 should, when we had made our first descent of 

 about 600 feet, see nothing in the shape of seaweed : 

 however, it is to the ground itself that we must turn 

 our attention. 



After w^e had left behind us the rocks and reefs 

 and shinorle and sand of the shore, we should 

 come to mud : it would most likely be of a dark 

 bluish colour, and it probably would not smell very 

 sweet. This mud is the sediment that has been 

 brought down by the rivers, and is therefore derived 

 from the land. 



In certain places where no rivers of any size 

 flow into the sea, as for instance, in the neighbour- 

 hood of coral islands, we should probably find a 



