370 APPENDIX. 



necessary to enable me to answer the question as to tlie best time 

 for laying tlie cable. For this the results of 260,000 days of ob- 

 servation at sea were consulted, and, after a laborious investiga- 

 tion, the company was informed of the result, which was that the 

 "most propitious time for their undertaking was the last of July 

 and the first of August," and that "the steamer with the western 

 end of the telegraphic cord on board would be less liable than the 

 other to encounter a gale." This proved true ; for the Agamem- 

 non came near losing her end of the cable, owing to the violence 

 of wind and waves, while the Niagara was sailing, with the west- 

 ern end, in smooth water and a tranquil sea; and it also turned 

 out that "between the 20th of July and 10th of August" was the 

 time which proved the best, as the company had been informed it 

 would. 



The investigations concerning the physics of the sea go farther, 

 and warrant other conclusions of much importance touching the 

 future progress of submarine telegraphy. They satisfy me that 

 no sea is so deep or so stormy but that an electric cord may be 

 safely planted in the still waters of the bottom ; that the currents 

 and storms which agitate the surface do not reach far down into 

 the depths below ; that under the pressure of the deep sea there 

 is no decay : even those mites of little animals that inhabited, 

 when alive, those microscopic shells which Brooke's rod brought 

 up from the bottom for us are, there is ground to conjecture, pre- 

 served for ages down there — whence it may be inferred that sub- 

 marine cables will last lifetimes at the bottom of the deep sea ; 

 that henceforward wrappings of iron wire about submarine cables 

 for the deep sea may be dispensed with; that, except for shoal 

 water, no future cable need be larger than the gutta-percha cord 

 which incases and isolates the conducting wire of the Atlantic 

 Telegraph ; and that submarine lines of telegraph, though their 

 prime cost may be a little, but not much more than that of over- 

 land lines, will henceforth prove the cheaper in the end ; for, 

 being once down, they will require no repairs in the deep sea. 

 Only as they come from the depths of the ocean to the land will 

 they be liable to injury. - 



October, 1858. 



THE END. 



