158 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [ix. 



ordered Captain Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of mine, 

 to ascertain the depth over the whole line of the cable, and to 

 bring back specimens of the bottom. In former days, such a 

 command as this might have sounded very much like one of the 

 impossible things which the young Prince in the Fairy Tales is 

 ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. 

 However, in the months of June and July 1857, my friend 

 performed the task assigned to him with great expedition 

 and precision, without, so far as I know, having met with 

 any reward of that kind. The specimens of Atlantic mud 

 which he procured were sent to me to be examined and reported 

 upon. 1 



The result of all these operations is, that we know the 

 contours and the nature of the surface-soil covered by the North 

 Atlantic, for a distance of 1,700 miles from east to west, as well 

 as we know that of any part of the dry land. 



It is a prodigious plain one of the widest and most even 

 plains in the world. If the sea were drained off, you might 

 drive a waggon all the way from Valentia, on the west coast of 

 Ireland, to Trinity Bay, in Newfoundland. And, except upon 

 one sharp incline about 200 miles from Valentia, I am not quite 

 sure that it would even be necessary to put the skid on, so 

 gentle are the ascents and descents upon that long route. From 

 Valentia the road would lie down-hill for about 200 miles to the 

 point at which the bottom is now covered by 1,700 fathoms of 

 sea-water. Then would come the central plain, more than a 

 thousand miles wide, the inequalities of the surface of which 

 would be hardly perceptible, though the depth of water upon it 

 now varies from 10,000 to 15,000 feet; and there are places in 

 which Mont Blanc might be sunk without showing its peak 

 above water. Beyond this, the ascent on the American side 



1 See Appendix to Captain Dayman s &quot; Deep-sea Soundings in the North 

 Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, made in H.M.S. 

 Cyclops. Published by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 

 1858.&quot; They have since formed the subject of an elaborate Memoir 

 by Messrs. Parker and Jones, published in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1865. 



