Show interesting had the land been flat the sea would have been two miles deep all over at the last meeting of the royal society of edinburg dajohn Dr John murray of the challenger expedition read a paper on the height and volume of the dry land and the depth and volume of the ocean according to his own investigations engineering says the mean height of the iland of ozithe globe was 2230 feet above sea level and the mean depth of the ocean was feet or 2080 fathoms if the ocean were regarded as being divided into two parts by the louo line it would bo 1 found the mean depan of the area hav ing less depths than 1000 fathoms was 2028 feet or fathoms or nearly the same depth beneath the sea as the height of the dry land above it on the other hand the mean depth of the area beyond the fathoms is feet or 2440 fathoms the former area called by dr murray the transitional area occupies square miles and the latter area which is the abysmal area and is situated fully three miles bielow the average heights of the continents occupies square miles or more than half tho surface of the earth la the transitional area of the ocean there are many varied conditions in respect of light heat currents changes of level the character and variety of the deposits and in the animals and planta which inhabit the various parts of the region the deposits are in most respects si to those which make up a very large part of the sedimentary of the dry land in the abysmal area there is a uniform sot of conditions the temperature being near the freezing point with an annual range not exceeding seven degrees fahrenheit and there being no sunlight or plant life there is a great abundance of animal life but the forms from various parts of the area are very similar and unlike those of shallower waters and the deposits which accumulate slowly are unlike any of the sedimentary deposits of the dry land from dr murrays Mur rays investigations it also appears that if the dry land of the globe were reduced to the sea level by being removed to and piled up in the shallow waters of the ocean then its extent would be about square miles and the rest of the surface of the earth would be covered by an ocean extending to square miles again should the whole of the solid land be reduced to one level under the echan then the surface of the earth would be covered by an ocean with a uniform depth of about two miles |