84 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



matter, he wrote to him for advice, eliciting a 

 reply as follows : 



Lensfield Cottage, Cambridge, 

 24th March 18GG. 



My dear Lubbock — I only arrived from London 

 this morning, when I found your letter. 



I had best explain to you in the first instance my 

 connection with the telegraph matter. 



Wheatstone called on me one day at the R.S. and 

 showed me a letter authorising him to appoint a com- 

 mittee consisting of himself, Dr. Miller and me to act 

 as scientific referees in relation to a scheme for estab- 

 lishing telegraphic communication between England 

 and America by the North Atlantic. I had some 

 conversation with him on the subject. He seemed to 

 feel very strongly many advantages which this route 

 offered over the more direct route. With reference to 

 the most obvious objection — the ice — he lent me a 

 pamphlet (not published) containing the opinions of 

 men experienced in Arctic Navigation (such as Sir 

 Leopold M'Clintock) as to the obstacles arising from ice. 

 The formation of the Committee was contingent on the 

 formal establishment of the Company. The scheme is 

 a revival of one started many years ago. I understand 

 from Wheatstone that the formal establishment of the 

 Company depended mainly on the possibility of obtaining 

 certain concessions from the Danish Government, which 

 have now, I believe, been obtained. So I looked on the 

 Company, in my own mind, as virtually established, 

 except as to certain formalities. I was not then aware 

 that the capital had yet to be raised. I should not 

 myself have looked on the raising a capital of £2,000,000, 

 or thereabouts as so light a matter as you City folk 

 seem to regard it. Miller and I both consented to act 

 in case the Company were formed. I am not, however, 

 a shareholder, nor, I believe, is Miller. The promoters 

 urged Wheatstone to let the Committee commence work 

 at experiments, but he declined to act till he got an 

 appointment signed by the directors, not wishing, as he 

 told me, that our names should be mixed up with an 

 undertaking, which, for aught we could be certain at 

 present, might prove only an abortive attempt to raise 

 a company. I feel grateful to him for having acted thus 

 firmly. 



