The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-01-10
THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.
A Great Trough Over Five Miles Deep OI
the Coast OF Japan.

A Great Trough Over Five Miles Deep OI
the Coast OF Japan.
Some interesting information regardin,
the great depths of the ocean, the San Fran
cisco Call says, has just been given b,
Admiral Belknap in paper read before th,
Asiatic Society, of Japan. The Admira
is veteran in the study. Sixteen year
ago, when he commanded the United Statei
ship Tuscarora, he surveyed the bottom o.
the Pacific from the coast of California tc
Japan with view to ascertaining whether
it would be practicable to lay a submarine
cable from San Francisco to Yokohama
1t was while engaged in that enterprise
that he discovered the deep trough which
lies at the bottom of the ocean parallel with
the south shore of Japan and the Aleutian
chain. This trough, or hollow, extends at
least from the meridian of Hakadade to
the eastern extremity of the Aleutian
chain, and runs quite close to the land,
often within 80 or 100 miles of low water
mark. 1t appears to serve as the bed of
the marine river known as the Black
Stream or Kurosiwo current, to which San
Francisco is indebted for her equable eli
mate.
Up to the time of Captain Belknap's dis
covery the greatest depth which had been
sounded in the ocean was one of 1915 IA
thoms, or something over four miles, which
was obtained by the Challenger, a few
miles north of the Virgin Isles, in the North
Atlantic. In the South Atlantic a depth
of 1884 fathoms has been found, and that
still remains the greatest depth tina, has
been sounded in the sea. In the South
Pacific the Challenger had at that time
found no greater depth than 2900 fathoms.
The Tuscarora found, in 1874, at a dis
tanee of from 100 to 200 miles from the
shore of Japan, depths of 1850, 4643,
4411, 1866 and 4057f athoms. When it
is remembered that 1865 fathoms are equal
to u $3.50 feet, or five and quarter miles,
the prodigious size of this chasm can be
conceived. Mount Everest, in the Hima-
layas, which is supposed to be the tallest
mountain in the world, is only 10000 feet
in height. If that could be plunged into
the bed of the Kurosiwo current its summit
would only be about 1000 feet above the
level of the sea.
Two years and half ago the British
Government despatched the surveying ship
Egeria to survey the bottom of the South
Pacific, with a view to ascerlaining the
prospects of submarine cables. Captain
Pelham Aldrich, who commands her, has
transmitted to the Admiralty a series of
reports of progress which contain valuable
information. Up to the time he sailed the
deepest spot which had been sounded in
the South Pacific was about one hundred
miles west of Callao Bay, in Peru, where
Captain Belknap, in the Alaska, had found
1861 fathoms. In 1888 and 1889 the
Egeria found deep hole lying west of the
Friendly Islands, near south latitude "a
degrees and west longitude 175 degrees.
There she got soundings of 1928, 1895
and 1880 fathoms Another similar hole,
with 4475 fathoms of water in it, had been
sounded by the Challenger about $50 miles
west of the Ladrone Islands, between them
and the Philippines. No such depths as
these have thus far been discovered in the
Atlantic, either north or south of the
equator.
If it be safe to theorize on so slender
an accumulation of facts as these, it may
be said that the deepest waters on the globe
are to be found in the Pacific. There are
a few holes of moderate depth in the At
lantic, and mariners tale ascribes oonsid,
erahle depths-whieh have not been veri-
fed-to parts of the Indian 0cean; but the
greatest cavities in the earth's surface
which have been measured uuderlie the
vaStest body of water existing ohthe globe.
1t may also be observed that there appears
to exist proportion between the average
height of the mountains on the shores of
the continent which bound it. The average
depth Of the Pacific, leaving ridges and
depressions or: of view, is not far from
1000 fathoms; the average height of the
peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the
Andes will not vary far from 10000 feet,
or 100 fathoms. The depth of the deep
spots in the bed of the Kurosiwo current
occasionally reaches $4,000 feet; the height
of Mount Aconcagua, in Chill, is 23,290
feet. Admiral Belknap considers it estah-
lished that the deepest spots in the ocean
are near the shores but the Friendly Islands
cannot be reconciled with this theory.
FoRECASTING THE WEATHER.
No.. a. Au.o.so... s.,