DEEP-SEA DREDGINGS. 161 



volumes and weighed the masses of the most distant 

 planets, and increased thereby the stock of human 

 knowledge. Is it creditable to the age that the depths 

 of the sea should remain in the category of unsolved 

 problems ? that its 6 ooze and bottom ' should be a 

 sealed volume, rich with ancient and eloquent legends, 

 and suggestive of many an instructive lesson that 

 might be useful and profitable to man ? " 



Since that time, however, duep-sea dredging has 

 gradually become rnqre and more thoroughly under- 

 stood and mastered. Recently, when the telegraphic 

 cable which had lain so many months at the bottom 

 of the Atlantic was hauled on board the " Great 

 Eastern " from enormous depths, men were surprised 

 and almost startled by the narrative. The appearance 

 of the ooze-covered cable as it was slowly raised 

 toward the surface, and the strange thrill which ran 

 through those who saw it and remembered through 

 what mysterious depths it had twice passed ; its break- 

 ing away almost from the very hands of those who 

 sought to draw it on board ; and the successful re- 

 newal of the attempt to recover the cable all these 

 things were heard of as one listens to a half-incredible 

 tale. Yet when that work was accomplished deep-sea 

 dredging had already been some time a science, and 

 many things had been achieved by its professors which 

 presented, in reality, greater practical difficulties than 

 the recovery of the Atlantic Cable. 



