202 
CtTHEEXTS OF THE SlIOAt. 
E’ke,?^™Tl f by dangerous 
bicakeis. ilio depth is sis or eight fathoms: hut in 
advancing to the middle of the bank, along the line of’ the 
summit first towards the west and then towards the north- 
n est, the depth becomes successively ten, twelve, sixteen, 
and nineteen fathoms. When we survey on the man the 
proximity of the high lands of San Domingo CuZ and 
Jamaica, in the neighbourhood of the Windward Chanuel 
the position of the island of Navaza, and the bank of Hor- 
migas between Capes Tiburon and Morant; when we trace 
«iat chain of successive breakers, from the Yibora, by Bnxo 
Juevo, Serranilla, and Quita Sueno, as far as the Mosquito 
aurstrs Tri t in this system of islands 
aud shoals, the ahnost-continued line of a heaved-up rid-m, 
running from .Y.E. to This ridge, and the old dvke 
ro“the^n^-^^ 7 V Capo San Antonio’ 
AV 1^ r '’^,^"''^^^111, divide the great sea of the 
West Indies into three jiartial basins, similar to those 
obsorved iii the Mcditerraiioaii, 
of the troubled waters on the shoal of La 
“”1* appearance like the waters in the 
c idiuillos, and on the bank of Bahama; but it is of a dirtv 
colour. The striking differences of tint on the bank bf 
mi ?'^; "P‘'bago of the Bahama Islands and 
nin 1 1 • 11 ’ * variable quantities of earthy matter sus- 
ptndod in the more or less troubled waters of the soundino-H, 
of the variable absorption of the 
modify to a certain point the 
temperature of the sea. Where the shoals are 8 ° to 10 ° 
colder at their surface than the surrounding sea, it cannot 
clLn’fI*’''*T^ produce a local change of 
nf X!:f of ^ery cold water, as on the bank 
of Newfoundland, in the current of the Peruvian shore 
(between the port of Callao aud Punta Pariua*) or in 
the African current near Cape Verd, have necessarily an 
influence on the atmosphere that covers the sea, and on 
isn-^ “'n ““Hiof October, 
■ 0 ., on the coast of Tiuxillo, 15'8“ cent.; in the port of f’allao in 
OeJemL? 10' I'"”''"* Punta krlna, in 
Ilecember, 19 ; and progressively, wlien tlie ennent advanced towards 
tlie equator, and receded towards the W.N.W., 20'5' and 22-3“. 
