THE SEA. 
The Pacific, or Great Ocean, stretches from north to south, from 
the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle, being bounded on one side by 
Asia, the island of Sunda, and Australia ; on the other by the west 
coast of America. This ocean contrasts in a striking manner with 
the Atlantic: the one has its greatest length from north to south, the 
other from east to west; the currents of the Pacific are broad and 
slow, those of the other narrow and rapid ; the wares of this are low, 
those of the other very high. If we represent the volume of water 
which falls into the Pacific by one, that received by the Atlantic will 
be represented by the figure 5. The Pacific is the calmest of seas ; 
the Atlantic Ocean is the most stormy ocean. 
The Antarctic Ocean extends from the Antarctic Polar Circle to the 
South Pole. 
It is remarkable that one half of the globe should be entirely 
covered with water, whilst the other contains less of water than dry 
land. Moreover, the distribution of land and water, if, in considering 
the germ of the oceanic basins, wo compare the hemispheres separated 
by the Equator and the northern and southern halves of the globe, 
is found to be very unequal. 
Oceans communicate with continents and islands by coasts, which 
are said to be scarped when a rocky shore makes a steep and sudden 
descent to the shore, as in Brittany, Norway, and the west coast of the 
British islands. In this kind of coast certain rocky indentations 
encircle it, sometimes above, sometimes under water, forming a 
labyrinth of islands, as at the Land’s End, Cornwall, where the Scilly 
Islands form a compact group of from one to two hundred rocky islets, 
rising out of a deep sea, or, in the case of the Channel, on the oppo- 
site coast of France, where the coast makes a sudden descent, forming 
steep cliffs and leaving an open sea. The coast is said to bo flat when 
it consists of soft argillaceous soil descending to the shore with a gentle 
slope. Of this description of coast there are two, namely, sandy beaches, 
and hillocks or dunes. 
What is the average depth of the sea ? It is difficult to give an exact 
answer to this question, because of the great difficulty met with 
in taking soundings, caused chiefly by the deviations of submarine 
currents. 0 No reliable soundings have yet been made in water over five 
miles in depth. 
