THE SEA AND THE ATMOSPHERE. J 9 



but a pagfin 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. The Telegraphic Plateau.— Among the many valuable dis- 

 coveries to which these researches touching the physics of the 

 sea have led, none perhaps is more interesting than the Tele- 

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

 the deep sea is lined with its own dead, whose microscopic 

 remains are protected from the abrading action of its currents 

 and the violence of its waves by cushions of still water. 



56. New routes for an Atlantic Telegraioh. — The idea of a tele- 

 graph from England or Ireland along this plateau to America, 

 seems after the splendid failure of 1858 to have been abandoned, 

 chiefly however on account of the electrical difficulties which 

 stand in the way of so long a circuit. Other routes with shorter 

 circuits are now proposed : these are engaging the attention of 

 enlightened governments in Europe, and of enterprising men on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. 



57. Tlis Greenland route. — A line md Iceland and Greenland 

 to Labrador, and thence overland to Canada and the United 

 States, is attracting attention in England. The Admiralty have 

 despatched Captain McClintock in the "Fox," of Arctic renown, 

 to run a line of deep-sea soundings along this route. 



58. The French route. — Another line from France, via the 

 Western Islands to St. Pierre Miquelon, a French fishing-station 

 off Xevvfoundland, and thence to the United States, is attracting 

 the attention of the French people. Their emperor has given 

 his sanction with the most liberal encouragement. 



59. Tlieir length of circuit. — The longest reach by the Green- 

 land route may require a circuit not exceeding 400 or 500 miles 

 in length. The greatest distance between the relay batteries of 

 the French line will be a little over a thousand. These dis- 

 tances, with wires properly insulated, are held to be within 

 effective telegraphic reach. 



60. Faulty cables. — One of the chief physical difficulties which 

 seem now to stand in the way of these lines lies with the 

 " cables." It so happens that all deep-sea lines have at the 

 present writing ceased to work. The two Malta lines in the 

 Mediterranean are out of order ; so also are the Eed Sea lines : 

 no messages have passed between Kurrachce and Aden for some 



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