portion of the work, and although, at times,
the squally state of the weather rendered
soundings quite impracticable, the fine calrn
days intervening sufficed for every useful
purpose. The result of these operations was
to show that the depth of the two great
waters, the Gulf of Mexico and the
Carribean Sea, is not nearly so great as, from their
extent, might have been anticipated; whilst, on
the other hand, the submarine valleys situated
between Cuba and some of the immediately
adjacent islands, stretch to a much greater
distance below than the larger undulations.
These contiguous ocean-valleys are, in fact, so
many sharp precipices descending to a depth
of sixteen hundred fathoms, and twelve
hundred fathoms; equal, by land measurement,
to two miles, and one and a half mile. The
greatest declivity found in the Mexican
Gulf was eight hundred and eighty fathoms,
a trifle over a mile, whilst, in the deepest part
of the Carribean Sea, right to the westward,
the soundings gave fully thirteen hundred
fathoms, decreasing, with a few irregularities,
to about three hundred fathoms in the vicinity
of the gulf stream, between Cuba and Cape
Haytien. The formation of these two vast
basins is especially interesting, as connected
with the course and strength of the great
gulf stream and other tributary ocean rivers,
which it is now evident feed the one mighty
stream. The operations of the officers on
board the Albany prove that, in the centre of
the Mexican Gulf, stretching away for the
North American coast, between the mouths
of the Mississippi, towards the Yucatan Pass,
there lies a ridge of elevated matter, which,
whilst it serves to confine the in-coming gulf
stream to its present course, protects the
mouths of the great Mississippi from any
encroachments from that quarter. Doubtless,
the submarine barrier thus thrown up as it
were for mutual purposes, owes its origin and
growth to more than one system of rivers.
In all probability, the mighty Amazon and
Orinoco have as much to do with it as the
great northern torrent; and should these
inquiries be carried out to their full extent
by obtaining specimens of the bottoms in all
these soundings, the point might, with no
great difficulty, be determined, through the
means of microscopic observation.

Who can say what mighty work may not
be in progress beneath the surface of these far
waters? Who can tell what vast sedimentary
formations may not be in course of preparation,
to give to the world, in a future generation,
new lands, new countries, rich in organic
remains, rich in all that can astound and
bewilder the naturalist, who, gazing in ages
to come at the treasures thus locked up, will
find within the overwhelming mass, fossil
palms and infusoria from the Amazon; reptiles
from the Orinoco; birds from the Rio Grande;
plants and creepers from the Upper Missouri;
pine, beech, and ash, from the Mississippi—
shaped up in gigantic confusion with wrecks of
steamers, and skeletons of man, and beast,
and monsters of the deep.

Having stated briefly the actual results of
the two first attempts at fathoming the depths
of the great waters, I will now mention
further operations undertaken in another
direction by the Commander of the United
States ship John Adams, during the spring
of last year (1851). This vessel was steered
nearly due west, from latitude thirty-eight
degrees, fifty minutes north, and made some
most successful deep-sea soundings. The first
was taken in about fifty-two degrees west
longitude, when bottom was found at twenty-
six hundred fathoms. In about forty-five
degrees west longitude, bottom was found at
five thousand five hundred fathoms, which
is the greatest depth at which soundings have
been successful; for, although, in the Fancy
expedition, two hundred fathoms deeper were
explored, no bottom was found. The above
sounding corrected for drift, i. e. making due
allowance for the effect of under-currents
upon the line whilst running out, gives an
actual up-and-down descent of twenty-eight
thousand nine hundred and fifty feet. In
longitude forty-four degrees west, the soundings
gave bottom at two thousand three
hundred fathoms. From this spot to within
twenty-four miles of the Peak of Pico, the
bottom ascended gradually to six hundred
and seventy fathoms, whilst, between the
Azores and Madeira, the depth increased to
beyond a thousand fathoms. In this course
of soundings a great deal of line was lost
from accidental breakages; a casualty to
which all the tackle employed appears to
have been especially subject. It will be
observed that the soundings taken in forty-
five degrees and forty-four degrees west longitude,
differed most materially; the actual
distance of locality did not exceed seventy
miles, yet the ocean bed was found to sink
from over five thousand fathoms to less than
half that depth. Here, then, we have a direct
proof, that the irregularity in the submarine
geography of the world is not confined, as
has been imagined, to the immediate
neighbourhood of dry land, but that ocean valleys
and mountains exist far away in the watery
waste of equal grandeur with any on our
continents, and, as already proved, of greater
vastness in some cases. This is but the result
of an inquiry and research at present in its
infancy: the knowledge is as yet only dawning
upon our minds: what it may lead to, can
be but mere surmise. The island of Saint
Helena is, as we know, a bluff, up-heaved,
rocky mass, running off at a very precipitous
angle below the water's edge. Doubtless, it
forms the summit of some ocean Andes, some
tremendous ranges of geological structures,
which, if in our upper-land, would be capped
with eternal snows.

Of the structure and irregularities of the
great southern basin nothing is as yet known.
It will not be long, however, before we