8 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
The greatest depth at which the bottom has been reached with this 
plummet is in the North Atlantic between the parallels of thirty-five 
and forty degrees north, and immediately south of the great bank 
of rocks off Newfoundland. This does not appear to be more than 
twenty-five thousand foot deep. “The basin of the Atlantic,” says 
Maury, ‘ according to the deep sea soundings in the accompanying 
diagram, is a long trough separating the Old World from the Nevy 
and extending, probably, from pole to pole. In breadth, it contrasts 
strongly with the Pacific Ocean. Prom the top of Chimborazo to 
the bottom of the Atlantic, at the deepest place yet reached by 
the plummet in that ocean, 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 Seas, 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 in one view, in the empty cradle of the ocean, ‘ a 
thousand fearful wrecks,’ with the array of ‘ dead men’s skulls, great 
anchors, heaps of pearls, and inestimable stones,’ which, in the poet’s 
eye, lie scattered on the bottom of the sea, making it hideous with 
the sight of ugly death.” 
The depth of the Mediterranean is comparatively inconsiderable. 
Between Gibraltar and Ceuta, Captain Smith estimates the depth 
at about five thousand seven hundred feet, and from one to three 
thousand in the narrower parts of the straits. Near Nice, Saussure 
found bottom at three thousand two hundred and fifty. It is said 
that the bottom is shallower in the Adriatic, and does not exceed 
a hundred and forty feet between the coast of Dalmatia and the 
mouths of the Po. 
The Baltic Sea is remarkable for its shallow waters, its maximum 
rarely exceeding six hundred feet. 
It thus appears that the sea has similar inequalities to those 
observed on land ; it has its mountains, valleys, hills, and plains. 
The Deep Sea Sounding Apparatus of Lieutenant Brooke has already 
furnished some very remarkable results. Aided by it, Dr. Maury has 
constructed his fine orographic map of the basin of the Atlantic, which 
is probably as exact as the maps which represent Africa or Australia. 
