Arizona republican., 1898-07-27
THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN.


 gently acquired knowledge of the bot, tom of the sea were given in lecture on submarine cables delivered in Parit
 by M. J. Depelley under the auspices C.. the French colonial union The fol-
 lowing extracts are made by Ciel e Terre, Paris:
 "The knowledge of the depths of the
 sea IS comparatively new science, the
 light on the nature and confguratiop Of the oceans bottom having been ob-
 tained trough the progress of subma-
 rine telegraphy.
 "Before th;s, ravigators confined their efforts to the discovery of tha
 boundaries of the surface, and nothing seemed least important to those whc sailed over it than the fact that the abyss beneath was 5000 to 3O,OOO feet deep. Little attention was given to the depths of the sea until the day when , the first essays toward submarine teie- graphy gave the immediate interest of utility to this new study.
 Up to that time soundings had scarcely been made anywhere except on coasts, in the mouths of rivers an . in horhors, where the depth might be so slight as to threaten the safety Of vessels. But when submarine telegra- phy came to demand as exact knowi, ledge as possible of the sea bottom, with all its variations, soundings were ex-
 tended, and the means of Investigating
 great depths were studied A large number of deep sea soundings have now been made by the French, English
 and American navies--principally by the English, in view CT telegraphic pro- Jects. They do not yet enable us to draw a map of the sea bottom; as we make chart of an explored region, but they give an idea of the broad lines of conf1guratiOn of the submarine surfacc of the earth.
 Thus, the Mediterranean is now
 quite well known, and we are almost certain that it is nowhere more than 11,oOo feet deep. In the Atlantic there
 nave rarely been found depths greater
 than 10000 or less than 5000 feet, ex- cept near the coasts.
 One more important result of these
 studies is the indication that the sea
 bottom, in deep places, is, except in certain regions, remarkably regular. IT.
 the north Atlantic, which has hitherto
 been best explored, the slopes are SO regular and gentle that Huxley assert ed that he might travel by carriage from the coast of Ireland to Newfound-
 land, if the ocean were dried up. From
 Ireland there is regular incline out to about 1S0 miles from the coast, ant,
 this could easily be descended. Thence extends, for distance of 1,2OO miles, a central plateau that has few irregulari- ties of surface; the surface of this plateau is IF 900 to 15,000 feet below the sea level, and although Mont Blanc could be submerged there, it would be easy enough to travel over this sur
 face, which is more level than any ter restrial plain. At the end of this pla
 teau begins an upward slope 450 mile
 long, and, except for one point where
 probably an extra horse would be re- quired, the carriage would easily reach Newfoundland.
 Another interesting fact is that the deep sea bottom everywhere appears to be in the same condition-a layer of soft slime, smooth to the touch, formed
 of mass of microscopic shells. This is
 found in almost all oceans, even in the
 Pacific, the only difference being slight variations of olor"-Translated for
 the Literary Digest.