Before the nineteenth century, scientists with an interest in the sea were fewand far between. Certainly Newton considered some theoretical aspects of it in hiswritings, but he was reluctant to go to sea to further his work. For most people the sea was remote, and with the exception of early inter-continental travelers or others who earned a living from the sea, there was littlereason to ask many questions about it, let alone to ask what lay beneath the sur-face. The first time that question "What is at the bottom of the oceans？" had tobe answered with any commercial consequence was when the laying of a telegraphcable from Europe to America was proposed. The engineers had to know thedepth profile of the route to estimate the length of cable that had to bemanufactured.