g02 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 
ingenuity of man had as yet proved itself equal to the task. No 
one had succeeded in penetrating-, and bringing up from beyond the 
depth of two or three hundred fathoms below the aqueous cover- 
ing of the earth, any specimens of solid matter for the study of phi- 
losophers. 
The sea, with its myths, has suggested attractive themes to all 
people in all ages. Like the heavens, it affords an almost endless 
variety of subjects for pleasing and profitable contemplation, and 
there has remained in the human mind a longing to learn more of 
its wonders and to understand its mysteries. The Bible often al- 
ludes to them. Are they past finding out ? How deep is it ? and 
what is at the bottom of it ? Could not the ingenuity and appli- 
ances of the age throw some light upon these questions ? 
The government was liberal and enlightened ; times seemed 
propitious ; but when or how to begin, after all these failures, with 
this interesting problem, was one of the difficulties first to be over- 
come. 
425. It was a common opinion, derived chiefly from a supposed 
physical relation, that the depths of the sea are about equal to the 
heights of the mountains. But this conjecture was, at best, only 
a speculation. Though plausible, it did not satisfy. There were, 
in the depths of the sea, untold wonders and inexplicable myste- 
ries. Therefore the contemplative mariner, as in mid ocean he 
looked down upon the gentle bosom of the sea, continued to expe- 
rience sentiments akin to those which fill the mind of the devout 
astronomer when, in the stillness of the night, he looks out upon 
the stars', and wonders. 
426. Nevertheless, the depths of the sea still remained as fath- 
omless and as mysterious as the firmament above. Indeed, tele^ 
scopes of huge proportions and of vast space-penetrating powers 
had been erected here and there by the munificence of individuals, 
and attempts made with them to gauge the heavens and sound out 
the regions of space. Could it be more difficult to sound out the 
sea than to gauge the blue ether and fathom the vaults of tiie sky ? 
The result of the astronomical undertakings* lies in the discovery 
that what, through other instruments of less power, apjDeared as 
clusters of stars, were, by these of larger powers, separated into 
groups, and what had been reported as nebulae could now be re- 
* See the works of Herschel and Ross, and their telescopes. 
