384 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



In proof of this, I refer to a recent discovery of Ehrenberg. In 

 tlie specimens obtained at a great depth from the Mediterranean, 

 that celebrated microscopist has distinctly recognized fresh-water 

 shells with meat in them. From this beautiful little fact we may 

 infer that the very volatile gases which enter into composition for 

 the formation of the fleshy parts of marine animalculse are sub- 

 jected to such a pressure upon the deep bed of the ocean that they 

 can not separate. If this inference be correct, and it doubtless is, 

 may we not proceed a step farther, and conclude with reason, that 

 with the pressure of the deep sea upon it, the gutta-percha used 

 for insulating submarine wires becomes impervious to decay ? 



With a due appreciation of these facts and circumstances, we are 

 now prepared for the question which involves most of the Nep- 

 tunian dif&culties with which the Atlantic Telegraph Company 

 has been contending with their cable ; and the question, such be- 

 ing the facts, may be thus stated : Is not any cable that is heavy 

 enough to sink, strong enough to lie on the bottom of the deep 

 sea ? If yea, then, it may be asked, why have any Atlantic ^^cable^'' 

 at all ? why serve gutta-percha cords for the deep sea with iron 

 wire at all? I am not speaking of the shore ends, where the 

 water is shallow, where abrading forces do work, and where the 

 iron service is required ; but, as I said, my remarks relate to the 

 deep sea, and I speak of the cable for that 



Of what use to the cable, it may be again asked, was that iron coat 

 of mail in which the insulated conductor was incased ? Was it to 

 make the cable sink? Why the company found the cable so heavy 

 when they began to pay it out into the deep sea that they were 

 constrained to postpone the undertaking from 1857 to 1858, that 

 they might tax the ingenuity of the world for brakes and paying- 

 out machinery that would prevent the cable from parting by its 

 own weight when running out in deep water. Without the iron 

 coating it was heavy enough to sink, and if it were not so, a little 

 larger conducting wire would have made it so, without any injury^ 

 I apprehend, to the electrical capacity of the cord. 



Many have proposed buoys for the cable. 



What a simple substitute for buoys would it be to leave off the 

 coating of iron wire ! Had that been left off the cable, there would 

 have been no need of brakes, and of much other machinery ren- 

 dered necessary by the cumbrous coat of mail. 



