Curiosities of Science, Past and Present: A Book for Old and YoungTimbs, John
Science
Curiosities of Science, Past and Present: A Book for Old and Young
Timbs, John
Science
This ocean-furrow was scored into the solid crust of our planet by the
Almighty hand, that there the waters which “he called seas” might be
gathered together so as to “let the dry land appear,” and fit the earth
for the habitation of man.
From the top of Chimborazo to the bottom of the Atlantic, at the
deepest place yet recognised by the plummet in the North Atlantic, the
distance in a vertical line is nine miles.
Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose to
view this great sea-gash, which separates continents, and extends
from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it would present a scene the most
grand, rugged, and imposing. The very ribs of the solid earth, with
the foundations of the sea, would be brought to light; and we should
have presented to us at one view, in the empty cradle of the ocean,
“a thousand fearful wrecks,” with that dreadful array of dead men’s
skulls, great anchors, heaps of pearls and inestimable stones, which,
in the dreamer’s eye, lie scattered on the bottom of the sea, making it
hideous with sights of ugly death.
GALES OF THE ATLANTIC.
Lieutenant Maury has, in a series of charts of the North and South
Atlantic, exhibited, by means of colours, the prevalence of Gales
over the more stormy parts of the oceans for each month in the year.
One colour shows the region in which there is a gale every six days;
another colour every six to ten days; another every ten to fourteen
days: and there is a separate chart for each month and each ocean.
SOLITUDE AT SEA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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