120 THE MICROSCOPE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



APPLICATIONS OF THE MICROSCOPE. 



1 . WHERE is the use of the Microscope to ter- 

 minate, whether we regard the past or the pre- 

 sent ? the domain of air, or earth, or ocean ? 

 Lieutenant Maury of the United States Navy, 

 now Superintendent of the National Observa- 

 tory at Washington, has lately called in this 

 instrument to ascertain the nature of the bed 

 of the Atlantic, and to determine the course of 

 the great Electric Telegraph, shortly destined, 

 we trust, despite of distance, and winds, and 

 waves, to bind the Old and New Worlds closely 

 together, and to place, as far as rapid intelli- 

 gence is concerned, London and New York by 

 each other's gate and market-place. Could a 

 submarine plateau be found for the bed of the 

 cable from shore to shore ? Was that plateau 

 sheltered and safe from the roll of the Atlantic 



