528 Meeting of the British Association, [ Oct., 
The next day was devoted to abstract mathematics. On 
Monday, Mr. Claudet described a new process for producing 
harmonious and artistic photographic portraits. One of the 
greatest deficiencies of photography is the impossibility of obtaining 
a well-defined image of all the various parts situated in different 
planes. The object of the author has been to discover a method 
of removing, if possible, from photographic portraiture that me- 
chanical harshness which is due to the action of the most perfect 
lenses. The author effects this by gradually moving one of the 
lenses while the person ig sitting, so that all parts of the image 
shall come successively én and out of focus, during one part of the 
exposure, and all in the same degree. By this simple contrivance, 
Mr. Claudet has succeeded in taking a photographic portrait with- 
out hard lines, but with the lights and shades blended in the most 
artistic harmony. 
An elaborate paper followed on the North Atlantic Telegraph, 
by Mr. Holmes. After alluding to the various attempts which had 
been made to establish electrical communication between Europe 
and America, and the success with which they had been ultimately 
crowned, the speaker said that long unbroken lines of submarine 
cables were placed at a very great disadvantage in their transmitting 
power as compared with land lines; the retardation (or slowness 
of transmission of the currents) that takes place from the law of 
induction forming one very serious cause of interference. The 
constant flow of induced earth currents through the wire, variable 
both in their intensity and direction, is another disadvantage to 
the employment of long unbroken lines of submarine cables. In 
the words of Professor Wheatstone, the impediments to the rapid 
succession of signals have been proved to be in proportion to the 
length of the conductor. The project advocated by Mr. Holmes is 
a line of telegraphic communication between England and America, 
which is to be immediately carried into effect, via Scotland, the 
Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and the coast of Labrador, and 
known as the North Atlantic Telegraph. A glance at the map im 
the direction pointed out will at once show that convenient natural 
landing stations exist, breaking up the cable into four short lengths 
or sections, instead of the necessitous employment of one continuous 
length, as between Ireland and Newfoundland. It will also be 
found that the aggregate length of these sections is within a very 
few miles the same as that of the Anglo-American Cable. Not 
only will this subdivision of the cable reduce mechanical risks in 
submerging, but what is of far more importance, the retardation 
offered to the passage of the current through the several short 
sections is almost as nothing when compared with the unbroken 
length of two thousand miles. As regards the danger from ice- 
bergs, the depth of the soundings up the Julianshaabfjiord, where 
