The greatest known depth of the ocean is midway between the Island of
Tristan d’Acunha and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. The bottom was
there reached at a depth of 40,236 feet, or eight and three-quarter
miles, exceeding by more than 17,000 feet the height of Mount Everest,
the loftiest mountain in the world. In the North Atlantic Ocean, south
of Newfoundland, soundings have been made to a depth of 4,580 fathoms,
or 37,480 feet, while depths equaling 34,000 feet, or six and a half
miles, are reported south of the Bermuda Islands. The average depth of
the Pacific Ocean between Japan and California is a little over 2,000
fathoms; between Chili and the Sandwich Islands, 2,500 fathoms; and
between Chili and New Zealand, 1,500 fathoms. The average depth of all
the oceans is from 2,000 to 2,500 fathoms.
* * * * *
Russian reports say that the Sea of Aral has been steadily rising since
1891. The sea level is now four feet above that of 1874. The line of
railroad from Orenburg to Tashkend had to be changed in order to avoid
being overflowed. Instead of sinking three inches a year, as German
geographers had computed, the sea has been rising at the rate of four
inches a year for the last ten years.
* * * * *
In 1812 it was La Souffrière, adjacent to the Morne Garou, which broke
loose on the Island of St. Vincent, and it is the same Souffrière
which now has devastated the island and is bombarding Kingston with
rocks, lava and ashes.
The old crater of Morne Garou has long been extinct, and, like the old
crater of Mont Pelee, near St. Pierre, it had far down in its depths,
surrounded by sheer cliffs from 500 to 800 feet high, a lake.
Glimpses of the lake of Morne Garou were difficult to get, owing to the
thick verdure growing about the dangerous edges of the precipices, but
those who have seen it describe it as a beautiful sheet of deep blue
water.