The Bottom of the Atlantic.
The soundings which were made between Ireland and Newfoundland before laying the Atlantic cable, have made the bottom of the Atlantic almost as well known as the surface of Europe and America. Professor Huxley says:— “It is a prodigious plain—one of the widest and most prodigious plains in the world. If the sea were drained off, you might drive a wagon all the way from Valencia, on the west coast of Ireland, to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland; and, except one sharp incline about 200 miles from Valentia, I am not quite sure that it would be necessary to put on the skid, so gentle are the ascents and descents upon that long route. From Valentia the road would lie down hill for about 200 miles, to the point at which the bottom is now covered by 1,700 fathoms of sea-water. Then would come the central plain, more than 1,000 miles wide, the inequalities of the surface of which would be hardly perceptible. Beyond this, the ascent on the American side commences, and gradually leads for about 200 miles to the Newfoundland shore.”—Sel.