244 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



rate at wliich the torpedo would sink, and the rate at which the 

 sound or the gas would ascend, and so, by timing the interval, to 

 determine the depth. This plan would afford no specimens of the 

 bottom, and its adoption was opposed by other obstacles. 



681. One gentleman proposed to use the magnetic telegraph. 

 The wire, properly coated, was to be laid up in the sounding-line, 

 and to the plummet was attached machinery, so contrived that at 

 the increase of every 100 fathoms, and by means of the additional 

 pressure, the circuit would be restored, somewhat after the manner 

 of Dr. Locke's electro-chronograph, and a message would come up 

 to tell how many hundred fathoms up and down the plummet had 

 sunk. As beautiful as this idea was, it was not simple enough 

 in practical application to answer our purposes. 



682. Greater difficulties than any presented by the problem of 

 deep-sea soundings had been overcome in other departments of 

 physical research. These plans and attempts served to encour- 

 age, nor were they fruitless, though they proved barren of practical 

 results. Astronomers had measured the volumes and weighed 

 the masses of the most distant planets, and increased thereby the 

 stock of human knowledge. Was it creditable to the age that 

 the depths of the sea should remain in the category of an unsolved 

 problem? Its " ooze and bottom" was a sealed volume, rich with 

 ancient and eloquent legends, and suggestive of many an instruct- 

 ive lesson that might be useful and profitable to man. The seal 

 which covered it was of rolling waves many thousand feet in 

 thickness. Could it not be broken ? Curiosity had always been 

 great, yet neither the enterprise nor the ingenuity of man had as 

 yet proved itself equal to the task. No one had succeeded in pen- 

 etrating, and bringing up from beyond the depth of two or three 

 hundred fathoms below the aqueous covering of the earth any 

 specimens of solid matter for the study of philosophers. 



683. The sea, with its myths, has suggested attractive themes 

 to all people in all ages. Like the heavens, it affords an almost 

 endless variety of subjects for pleasing and profitable contempla- 

 tion, and there has remained in the human mind a longing to learn 

 more of its wonders and to understand its mysteries. The Bible 

 often alludes to them. Are they past finding out ? How deep is 



