of the English navy for much valuable information touching this interesting subject. Certain officers in that service have taken up the problem of deep-sea soundings with the most praise-worthy zeal, energy, and intelligence. Dayman in the Atlantic, Captains Spratt and Mansell in the Mediterranean, with Captain Pullen in the Red Sea, have all made valuable contributions to the stock of human knowledge concerning the depths and bottom of the sea. To Mansell and Spratt we are indebted for all we know about deep-sea soundings in the Mediterranean, as we are to Pullen for those in the Red Sea. By their lines of soundings, their maps and profiles, they have enabled physical geographers to form, with some approach towards correctness, an idea as to the orography of the basins which hold the water for these two seas. We are also indebted to the French for deep-sea soundings in the Mediteranean. That sea appears to be about two miles deep in the deepest parts, which are in the isleless spaces to the west of Sardinia and to the east of Malta.
CHAPTER XIV.
§ 580-619. THE BASIN AND BED OF THE ATLANTIC.
580. The wonders of the sea.—The wonders of the sea are as marvellous as the glories of the heavens; and they proclaim, in songs divine, that they too are the work of holy fingers. Among the revelations which scientific research has lately made concerning the crust of our planet, none are more interesting to the student of nature, or more suggestive to the Christian philosopher, than those which relate to the bed and bottom of the ocean.
581. Its bottom and Chimhorazo.—The basin of the Atlantic, according to the deep-sea soundings made by the American and English navies, is shown on Plate XI. This plate refers chiefly to that part of the Atlantic which is included within our hemisphere. 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. As to breadth, it contrasts strongly with the Pacific Ocean. From the top of Chimborazo to the bottom of the Atlantic, at the deepest place
