106 SHAITNER ON COMMUNICATION WITH AMERICA [May 14, 1860. 



undertake to pronounce any positive opinion ; but he trusted there might be 

 some gentlemen present who, from their acquaintance with the Arctic regions, 

 would be competent to speak upon the questions submitted to them. They 

 were especially obliged to Mr. Alderman Hopkins for coming from Manchester 

 to give to them the results of his researches and inquiries. With regard to the 

 other paper, it was also a subject of congratulation when gentlemen from foreign 

 countries were kind enough to come and submit their investigations to the 

 Society. Every scheme which tended to unite this country with America, and 

 to facilitate intercourse between them, would always be hailed with the greatest 

 satisfaction. But in the case of the present proposals the first thing required 

 was that the whole line proposed to be traversed by the electric wires should 

 be carefully examined and surveyed, and that the route which ultimately proved 

 to be the best should be adopted. Such an investigation would have a peculiar 

 interest for geographers, relating as it did to the physical formation of a hitherto 

 unexplored portion of the earth. 



Mb. Lionel Gisborne, f.r.g.s., thought the two papers were contradictory 

 to one another. Mr. Hopkins tried to prove that in the polar region there was 

 a warm latitude which might be reached by shipping. Colonel Shaffner tried 

 to prove that between Scotland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland, there 

 was also a warm latitude, or such a latitude that a telegraphic cable might be 

 laid without being troubled by icebergs. He should confine himself to the 

 geographical portion of the question. Colonel Shaffner had omitted one most 

 important element in the consideration of the question, and that was the effect 

 of terrestrial magnetism upon the telegraph. We knew from the experience of 

 submarine lines that the difficulty of making an instrument delicate enough to 

 Record a signal at a long distance was chiefly caused by the amount of terrestrial 

 magnetism to be overcome, the magnetism sometimes being induced by the 

 telegraph itself. If terrestrial magnetism in the polar regions was far greater 

 than in the latitude of the old Atlantic line, he thought it would be found a most 

 important objection ; therefore, should any survey be made, that was a point 

 which ought to be urged upon investigators. Apart from this probable diffi- 

 culty, there were other questions to be investigated connected with the working 

 of the line, principally the question of icebergs. He had. the opinion that ice- 

 bergs were prevalent about Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador ; and if Colonel 

 Shaffner could show that there were inlets and bays on the coast in which a 

 cable could be landed safe from the effects of icebergs, he would have established 

 a fact not generally known, and a most important fact in the physical geography 

 of that country. Supposing these two points satisfactorily settled, then came 

 the question of advantage : What advantage was there in the proposed route, 

 when the two termini of the line would be such a long distance from the points 

 wanted to be reached — London and New York ? Taking a broad view of the 

 question, he should not be disposed to go to a part of the world with such a 

 delicate thing as electricity, where every book on the subject shoAved there were 

 currents, great differences of temperature, icebergs, and changes in the formation 

 of the country, to be encountered. The only advantage offered by Colonel 

 Shaffner was that of having a fresh battery every 500 or 600 miles ; that was 

 an immense advantage ; and if it could be proved that the difficulties to which 

 he had referred did not exist, then, undoubtedly, the route proposed would have 

 advantages not possessed by any other in that respect. Whatever opinion he 

 might hold as to the feasibility of the plan, must be controlled by new facts, 

 which a proper survey could alone establish. 



Mr. J. St PART Wortley, f.r.g.s., said the question of the proposed tele- 

 graph had several characters : its physical character, which more immediately 

 came under the attention of a Society like that, its political character, its com- 

 mercial character, and its electric character. The last three did not come within 

 the province of the Society. With politics they had nothing to do ; yet he 

 would remind the meeting that Colonel Shaffner did not afford a British line, 



