Phenix Gazette

Transparency of the Sea. - There is nothing perhaps that strikes a northern traveller more than the singular transparency of the waters; and the farther he penetrates into the Arctic regions, the more forcibly is his attention riveted to this fact. At a depth of 20 fathoms, or 120 feet, the whole surface of the ground is exposed to view. Beds composed entirely of shells, and lightly sprinkled with them, and sub-marine forests, present through the clear medium new wonders to the unaccustomed eye. It is stated by Sir Capel de Brooke, and fully confirmed by my observations in Norway, that sometimes on the shores of Norland the sea is transparent to a depth of 4 or 500 feet; and that when a boat passes over a reef; one who has gradually in tranquil wonderingly the rugged steep, shrinks back with horror as he crosses the vortex, under an impression that he is falling headlong down the precipice. The transparency of tropical waters generally as far as my experience goes, is not comparable to that of the sea in these northern latitudes; though an exception be made in favor of the China seas, and a few isolated spots on the Atlantic. Every one who has passed over the bank known to sailors as the Saya de Malha, ten degrees north of the Mauritius, must remember with pleasure the worlds of shell and coral which the translucid water exposes to view at a depth of thirty to fifty and thirty fathoms. - Elliot's Letters from the North of Europe.