18 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



tlie equator and the soutliern seas. In the Atlantic the tides are 

 high, in the Pacific they are low. The Pacific feeds the clouds 

 mth vapours, and the clouds feed the Atlantic Avith rain for its 

 rivers. If the volume of rain which is discharged into the Pacific 

 and on its slopes be represented by 1, that discharged upon the 

 hydrographical basin of the Atlantic into the Atlantic would be 

 represented by 5. The Atlantic is crossed daily by steamers, the 

 Pacific rarely. The Atlantic washes the shores of the most power- 

 ful, intelKgent, and Christian nations ; but a pagan or a heathen 

 people in the countries to which the Pacific gives drainage are like 

 the sands upon its shores for multitude. The Atlantic is the most 

 stormy sea in the world, the Pacific the most tranquil. 



55. Among the many valuable discoveries to which these re- 

 The Telegraphic searchcs touchiug the physics of the sea have led. 

 Plateau. ^^^^^ perhaps is more interesting than the Telegraphic 

 Plateau of the Atlantic, and the fact that the bottom of the deep 

 sea is lined wdth its own dead, whose microscopic remains are pro- 

 tected fi'om the abrading action of its currents and the violence of 

 its waves by cushions of still water. 



56. The idea of a telegraph from England or Ireland along this 

 New routes for an platcau to America, seems after the splendid failure 

 Atlantic Telegraph, ^f iQ^Q ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ abandoned, cliiefly however on 



account of the electrical difficulties which stand in the way of so 

 long a circuit. Other routes with shorter circuits are now pro- 

 posed : these are engaging the attention of enlightened govern- 

 ments in Em'ope, and of enterprising men on both sides of the 

 Atlantic. 



57. A line met Iceland and Greenland to Labrador, and thence 

 The Greenland route, ovcrland to Canada and the United States, is attract- 

 ing attention in England. The Admiralty have despatched Captam 

 McClintock in the "Fox," of Arctic renown, to run a line of deep- 

 sea soundings along this route. 



58. Another Ime from France, via the Western Islands to St. 

 The French route. Pierre Miquelou, a French fishing-station ofi" New- 



fomidland, and thence to the United States, is attracting the 

 attention of the French people. Their emperor has given his 

 sanction with the most liberal encom-agement. 



59. The longest reach by the Greenland route may require a cir- 

 Their length of cir- cuit not oxcecding 400 or 500 miles in length. The 

 ^^"'- greatest distance between the relay batteries of the 

 French line w^ill be a little over a thousand. These distances, 



