144 THE SEA. 



Rogers cord is so slight, as to carry it down at the 

 rate of a mile or two per hour ; it is not stouter than 

 the ordinary log-line, so that it can be readily paid 

 out. The amount of " slack" required to feed the cur- 

 rents is not nearly so great as is generally supposed, 

 because the set of the Gulf Stream lies so nearly parallel 

 with the course of the wire, that for a great part of the 

 way the current would scarcely throw the cable out of 

 its proper line. Supposing, however, a current of two 

 knots an hour, for the entire distance, and its course 

 to be at right angles to the cable, the cord, being paid 

 out with ten per cent, of slack, will sink at the rate of 

 two miles an hour: the current may be granted to 

 extend to the maximum depth of half a mile: any 

 given part of the cord, therefore, as it goes out, occu- 

 pies a quarter of an hour in sinking through this 

 distance. During this interval alone is it subject to 

 the current, which sweeps it half a mile to the left of 

 the ship's course, going eastward ; after which it sinks 

 perpendicularly through the still water, till it reaches 

 the bottom. 



The result would be, not a sinuous, but nearly a 

 straight course, only running uniformly hah a mile to 

 the left of the track of the ship. 



But what proof is there of the existence of such a 

 stratum of still water at the bottom ? A beautiful 

 and convincing proof, derived from the organisms that 

 have been brought up from this very plateau by 

 Brooke's sounding apparatus its first trophies. The 

 naval officer who made the casts, removed from the 



