SECTION OF THE 



FIRST 

 ATLANTIC CABLE. 



100 THE SEA. 



on her way across the deep, in three Aveeks reaching- the coast of Ireland, and clearly 

 demonstrating-, as the result of her survey, the existence of a great plateau under the- 

 ocean, extending all the way from the New World to the Old. To make assurance doubly 

 sure, Mr. Field solicited the British Admiralty " to make what further soundings might be 

 necessary between Ireland and Newfoundland, and to verify those made by Lieutenant 

 Berryman.-" In response to this appeal the Admiralty sent out the Cyclops, under 

 Lieutenant Dayman, a very capable officer, who executed his task with great zeal and 

 success. He showed that the depth of the water on the so-called telegraphic plateau 

 the elevated table-land which Providence had raised between the two continents nowhere 

 exceeded 2,500 fathoms, or 15,000 feet. Such a depth is almost trivial compared with 

 the enormous depths in other parts of the Atlantic, where you might hide from all 

 human eyes the loftiest snow-clad peak of the Himalayas, yet no inconsiderable depth if 

 you reflect that the peak of Teneriffe, were it here " cast into the sea/' would sink out 

 of sight, island, mountain, and all ; and even the coloured crest of Mont Blanc would rise 

 but a few hundred feet above the waves. The single exception to this 

 uniform depth occurs about 200 miles off the Irish coast, where within an 

 area of about a dozen miles the depth sinks from 550 to 1,750 fathoms. In 

 14 48' W., says Dayman, we have 550 fathoms rock, and in 150 6' W. we 

 have 1,750 fathoms ooze. In little more than ten miles of distance a change 

 of depth takes place amounting- to fully 7,200 feet. It was supposed that 

 this tremendous declivity would be the chief point of danger in laying- 

 down the cable ; and to remove, if possible, the anxiety which existed, Lieutenant Dayman 

 made a further survey. The result showed that the dip was not a sudden one ; the- 

 precipitous bank or submarine cliff turned out to be a gradual slope of nearly sixty miles. 

 Over this long- slope, said a writer in the Times, the difference between its greatest height 

 and greatest depth is only 8,760 feet, so that the average incline is, in round numbers, about 

 145 feet per mile. A good gradient on a railway is now generally considered to be 1 in 100 

 feet, or about 53 feet in a mile ; so that the incline on this supposed bank is only about 

 three times that of an ordinary railway. It was found upon these surveys that the ocean bed 

 consisted of a soft ooze, as soft as the moss which cling-s to old damp stone on the river's 

 brink. And of what does this ooze consist ? The microscope revealed the astonishing fact 

 that it is made up of myriads of shells, too minute to be discovered by the naked eye, yet each 

 perfect in itself, unbroken and uninjured. These organisms live near the surface of the water r 

 but in death sink down to the bottom, and there find a calm and peaceful resting-place. Well 

 has it been said that a mighty work of life and death has for ages been going- on in the 

 tranquil bosom of ocean. Myriads upon myriads, ever since the morning of creation, 

 have been falling falling like snow-flakes, till their remains cover with a thick stratum of 

 beautiful organisms the ocean bed. "The bearing of this discovery/' says Dr. Field, "on the 

 problem of a submarine telegraph was obvious. For it, too, was to lie on the ocean bed, beside 

 and among those relics that had so long been drifting down upon the watery plain. And if 

 these tiny shells slept there unharmed, surely an iron cord might rest there in safety. There 

 were no swift currents down there : no rushing waves agitated that sunless sea. There 



* o o 



the waters moved not, and there might rest the great nerve that was to pass from 



