30 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



made for the purpose of laying a telegraphic cable 

 between the Old World and the New, all this part of 

 the ocean-bottom seemed as if it were purposely de- 

 signed to form the bed of that wonderful conductor of 

 thought. Hence the name of " Telegraphic Plateau " 

 was given to it. 



For a considerable distance around the Azores the 

 depth is less than 1000 fathoms. About halfway 

 between the Azores and Newfoundland, there is also 

 a circumscribed region of comparatively slight deptli 

 — being marked in Maury's Chart as less than 2000 

 fathoms. In the whole of this route — that is to say, 

 from Spain to the Azores, and from the Azores to 

 Newfoundland — the depth nowhere exceeds 3000 

 fathoms. It has therefore appeared to present a 

 suitable course for a telegraphic cable. The French 

 line is laid midway betw^een this plateau and the 

 English cable of 1866. 



Along the coasts of Brazil and Guiana the sea be- 

 comes rapidly shallower ; and as the great equatorial 

 current which carries .the waters from east to west is 

 of vast breadth, we need not feel, surprised to observe 

 that it increases in swiftness as it approaches the 

 coasts which confine its bed. There is then a descent 

 or lower depth of the sea-bottom extending eastward 

 from the Isthmus of Panama to St. Domingo, as if the 

 rush of the current had washed out a gulf. This 



