The Mighty Deep, and TVhat We Snow of It. By
Agnes Giberne. (C. Arthur Pearson. 5s.)—Miss Giberne having told us about the stars, now conducts us about the ocean. She has an effective way of putting things. We realise, for instance, the varying depths of the sea when we are told that if its surface could be lowered by six hundred feet the British Isles would be joined to the Continent, and we should be driven to conscription. A fall of three thousand feet would join us to North America. After this section we come to the life that is found in the depths and the conditions under which it exists. Then we hear about the "Rivers in the Sea," the Gulf Stream, about which we all know, and the less familiar names of the Black Stream (flowing outside Japan), and the Arctic Stream in the Pacific. The action of the winds and the phenomena of ice are successively discussed. Then we are told about the many inhabitants of the sea, from the limpet up to the shark. Finally, we have some sound advice as to the special responsibilities that our " business in the great waters" entails upon us. If we had a Navy proportioned to our com- mercial trade, we should have to increase our present force to a very startling figure. We ought to be equal, not to two Powers only, but to alL
Previous page
