1856.] Bottom of the Atlantic. — Atheism. 523 



The Calliope is capable of being played with a crank, as a common 

 hand organ; and in this form will doubtless take the place of the 

 shrill steam whistle on the railroad; but its greater utility will be, it 

 seems to us, as a ' signal ' between our steamships on the ocean; and 

 as a ' diversion ' to the passengers on their voyages. The consump- 

 tion of steam by it is said to be quite inconsiderable. 



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The steamer Arctic sounded the Atlantic all the way across, find- 

 ing the greatest depth 2.070 fathoms, (more than two miles.) The 

 bed of the ocean, in the section traversed by the Arctic, is a plateau, 

 as already announced by Captain Berryman, who had twice before 

 sounded across the Atlantic. The bottom in the deeper part is a 

 very fine mud, of a mouse-gray color, so soft that the sounding in- 

 struments frequently sunk several feet into the mud. They brouo-ht 

 up specimens of the bottom at every sounding, in quills which were 

 attached to the end of the sounding instrument. Toward the shores 

 on each side, this mud changes into a fine green ooze. No other 

 substances were met, no rock, nor any thing that might prove fatal 

 to a telegraph wire. There seems to be now nothing to hinder the 

 great work, to unite Europe and America by means of a telegraph 

 wire ; an undertaking so grand that few thought it possible. The 

 whole distance across was found to be 1,640 sea miles, from St. John, 

 N. F., to Yalentia Harbor, Ireland. The greatest depth was found 

 nearly in the center between these two places. The profile of the 

 Atlantic bed on this route, is of easier grade than many of our rail- 

 road profiles. — N. Y. Journal of Commerce. 



Atheism. — "VYhat can be more foolish, says Jeremy Taylor, than 

 to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by 

 chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster ? To 

 see rare effects, and no cause ; a motion, without a mover ; a circle, 

 without a center ; a time, without an eternity ; a second, without a 

 first; are things so against philosophy and natural reason, that he 

 must be a beast who does not assent to them. The thino- formed 

 says that nothing formed it; that that which is made is, and that 

 which made it is not. This folly is infinite. 



