Words Under Water : 323 



government services and private research institutions. Over the years, 

 since the first cable was laid, the cable ships have also contributed to 

 research by reporting their soundings and other discoveries relating 

 to the ocean's bottom. Cable ships have reported some of the deepest 

 soundings ever taken. 



Today radio competes with the cables yet the volume of cable serv- 

 ices keeps on growing. The longest cables have, of course, been laid 

 in the Pacific, but the Atlantic, which carries the overwhelming bulk 

 of ocean freight and passenger services, also carries the most complex 

 web of cables whose strands not only race back and forth across the 

 ocean but also spread out to Africa and South America. Indeed tele- 

 phone messages in both directions that were formerly conveyed by 

 wireless are now being sent over two new cables which opened for 

 business in 1956. 



