CHAPTER XX.
OFF THE PACIFIC COAST.
"Well, Lieutenant, how goes the sounding ?" "Pretty lively, Captain; we're nearly through;" replied the Lieutenant.
"But it's a tremendous depth so near land.

We can't be more than 250 miles from the California coast." "The depression certainly is far deeper than I had expected," observed Captain Bloomsbury.

"We have probably lit on a submarine valley channelled out by the Japanese Current." "The Japanese Current, Captain ?" "Certainly; that branch of it which breaks on the western shores of North America and then flows southeast towards the Isthmus of Panama." "That may account for it, Captain," replied young Brownson; "at least, I hope it does, for then we may expect the valley to get shallower as we leave the land.

So far, there's no sign of a Telegraphic Plateau in this quarter of the globe." "Probably not, Brownson.

How is the line now ?" "We have paid out 3500 fathoms already, Captain, but, judging from the rate the reel goes at, we are still some distance from bottom." As he spoke, he pointed to a tall derrick temporarily rigged up at the stern of the vessel for the purpose of working the sounding apparatus, and surrounded by a group of busy men.