Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/76

58 from the western swell:—moreover, it stands on a bank of soundings of great extent, and has eleven feet water over it at low water spring tides: yet this always breaks in bad weather.

It is possible that Aitkins' Rock may have been a volcanic production, which has since subsided, like the Sabrina island of the Azores; but certainly no bank exists near any of the positions assigned to it, at the depth of one hundred and fifty to two hundred fathoms, except, indeed, those which place it on the bank which surrounds Ireland, where, according to Mr. Fauiknor, it could not be, as he had no bottom with one hundred and fifty fathoms of line, at thirty fathoms distance from it.

In closing this paper it may be well to state, that although the subject of it has defied our zeal, and the primary object of our pursuit has not been attained, yet the employment of the vessels has been far from useless, since there has resulted from the inquiry a partial delineation of that great bank on which Ireland and the Hebrides are based. Its western limits have been determined between the 54th and 56th degrees of latitude, which comprehend the space by which our northern traders approach the Irish Channel, and the chain of soundings cannot fail to he highly serviceable to them in making a landfall.

Our pilot, who had served nearly half a century in that capacity on the north of Ireland, assured us that there are soundings the whole way from Tory Island to Rockall. Our time and circumstances did not allow us to ascertain this; and it is to be regretted that at a period when Great Britain has added so vastly to the stores of hydrographic knowledge, the banks which surround her own shores are many of them unknown both in quality and extent.



T increased avidity with which the study of nature is now pursued, has undeniably been aided by the geographical inquiries of the last century; and it is obvious that the same influence will still be strongly exerted in establishing a knowledge of the organic and inanimate relations of the globe. I therefore offer no excuse for drawing attention to the subject of the present communication.

Much discussion has been lately directed towards St. Paul's, Santorin, and other volcanic islands, which enclose circular bays, or gulfs, whence the theory of 'craters of elevation' has arisen; and it may therefore be acceptable to learn that there is another, which, though almost in our neighbourhood, has not been suspected by geologists. About thirty-five miles to the eastward of