208 
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, 
CHAPTER XIL 
THiE BASIN OF THE ATLANTIC. 
Plate XL, ^ 439.— Height of Chimborazo above the Bottom of the Sea, 440.— Orog- 
raphy of Oceanic Basins, 441.— The deepest Place in the Atlantic, 442. — The Bot- 
tom OF THE Atlantic : The Utility of Deep-sea . Soundings, 445. — A telegraphic 
Plateau across the Atlantic, 446.— Specimens from it, 447. — A microscopic Exam- 
ination of them, 448. — Brooke's Deep-sea Lead presents the Sea in a new Light, 
453. — The Agents at work upon the Bottom of the Sea, 454. — How the Ocean is 
prevented from growing Salter, 458. — Knowledge of our Planet to be derived from 
the Bottom of the Sea, 460. 
439. The Basin of the Atlantic, according to the deep-sea 
soundings made by the American Navy, in the manner described 
.in the foregoing chapter, is shown on Plate XI. This plate refers 
chiefly to that part of the Atlantic which is included within our 
hemisphere. 
440. In its entire length, the basin of this sea is a long trough, 
separating the Old World from the New, and extending probably 
from pole to pole. 
This ocean-furrow was scored into the solid crust of our planet 
by the Almighty hand, that there the waters which ''he called 
seas" might be gathered together, so as to " let the dry land ap- 
pear," and fit the earth for the habitation of man. 
From the top of Chimborazo to the bottom of the Atlantic, at 
the deepest place yet reached by the plummet in the North At- 
lantic, the distance, in a vertical line, is nine miles. 
Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose 
to view this great sea-gash, which separates continents, and extends 
from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it would present a scene the most 
rugged, grand, and imposing. ' The very ribs of the solid earth, 
with the foundations of the sea, would be brought to light, and we 
should have presented to us at one view, in the empty cradle of 
the ocean, " a thousand fearful wrecks," with that dreadful array 
of dead men's skulls, great anchors, heaps of pearl and inestima- 
ble stones, which, in the poet's eye, lie scattered in the bottom of 
the sea, making it hideous with sights of ugly death. 
