RESULTS OF DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS. 29 



imagined that in the course of years the inventions 

 founded on the truth then discovered would result 

 in the systematic driving of a fleet of floating palaces 

 all round the world at the rate of from twelve to 

 fifteen or twenty miles an hour ! Instances of a 

 similar kind might be multiplied without end. In 

 like manner, deep-sea sounding may lead to great, 

 as yet unimagined, results. Although yet in its 

 infancy, it has already resulted in the discovery of 

 a comparatively shallow plateau or ridge in the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, rising between Ireland and 

 Newfoundland; a discovery which has been turned 

 to practical account, inasmuch as the plateau has 

 been chosen to be the bed of our electric telegraph 

 between Europe and America. The first Atlantic 

 cable was laid on it ; and although that cable suffered 

 many vicissitudes at first, as most contrivances do 

 in their beginnings, communication between the 

 two continents was successfully established. Sound- 

 ings taken elsewhere showed that somewhat similar 

 plateaus existed in other parts of the Atlantic, and 

 now the whole of Western Europe is being bound 

 more firmly, by additional cables, to the eastern 

 sea-bord of America. 



This great and glorious achievement has been the 

 result of the discovery of two truths, of a truth in 

 science on the one hand, and a truth in regard to 

 the structure of the bed of the sea on the other. 

 The study of electricity and of deep-sea soundings 

 was begun and carried on for the sake of the dis- 



