XX NOTES BY TIIE EDITOR 



tion of a hempen plat, the hemp having been passed through a chemical 

 solution to render it indestructible in salt water. Such a line, it is said, 

 of gutta percha and prepared hemp, -would, although only about three 

 quarters of an inch in diameter, be of nearly double the strength of the 

 experimental line laid down between England and France, in a strong sea 

 and running tide. The proposition is, to extend it from the south-west 

 coast of Ireland, the nearest point to the American Continent, and where 

 the bold and rocky shore offers depths that secure its safety from anchors, 

 to the nearest point on the American coast, a distance considerably less 

 than two thousand miles. Choosing the months of summer, and an expe- 

 rienced captain, accustomed to the track, such a line, it is averred, might, 

 with very simple machiner}'-, be paid out night and day with perfect safety, 

 at the ordinai-y speed of the steamer. The vast importance of such an 

 object is not to be weighed against a sum of one hundred thousand pounds, 

 which, we are assured, would more than accomplish it, if a single wire 

 only were employed. The successful completion of one line would, of 

 course, be speedily followed by that of others. This once accomplished, 

 the extension of the line across the American continent, to the Pacific, 

 would follow certainly ; and we should have the astounding fact, of a com- 

 munication from the shores of the Pacific, crossing America and the Atlan- 



^o 



tic, and touching our shores, in an instant of time." 



a 

 The present extent of the telegi-aphic system in the United States and 



Canada is not far from twelve thousand miles. During the past year the 

 shortest passage ever made between England and the United States, has 

 been accomplished, by the Baltic, (Collins' Line,) in nine days thirteen 

 hours and forty minutes. Average time of the American steamers, from 

 Liverpool to New York, from July 1st, 1851, to Jan. 1st, 1852, eleven days 

 eight hours ; of the English, do., do., twelve days nine hours. Average 

 of the American steamers from New York to Liverpool, in the above men- 

 tioned time, ten days twenty-three hours ; of the English, do., eleven days 

 eleven hours. 



In no department of science is there greater enterprise displayed than 

 in the department of meteorologj'. Under the direction of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, stations are now being established in many parts of the country, 

 each provided with proper instruments, regulated according to one stand- 

 ard. Under the direction of the Kegents of the University of the State of 

 New York, a very complete system for meteorological observations has been 

 extended, by Prof. Guyot, over the whole State. At the meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association at Albany, a committee was appointed, and instructed to me- 

 morialize Congress, the Canadian Government, and the different State Legis- 

 latures, in regard to the immediate extension of the system now making, 

 under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. A letter was also read 

 at this meeting of the Association from the Hudson's Bay Company, offer- 



