The First Atlantic Cables 



and Europe. The steamer now returned to trie 

 spot where she had lost the cable a few months 

 before; after eighteen days' search it was brought 

 to the deck in good order. Union was effected 

 with the cable stowed in the tanks below, and 

 the prow of the vessel was once more turned 

 to Newfoundland. On September 8th this second 

 cable was safely landed at Trinity Bay. Mis- 

 fortunes now were at an end; the courage of Mr. 

 Field knew victory at last; the highest honors 

 of two continents were showered upon him. 

 Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, 

 But the high faith that failed not by the way. 



What at first was as much a daring adventure 

 as a business enterprise has now taken its place 

 as a task no more out of the common than build- 

 a steamship, or rearing a cantilever bridge. 

 Given its price, which will include too moderate 

 a profit to betray any expectation of failure, arid 

 a responsible firm will contract to lay a cable 

 across the Pacific itself. In the Atlantic lines 

 the uniformly low temperature of the ocean 

 floor (about 4 C.) , and the great pressure of the 

 superincumbent sea, co-operate in effecting an 

 enormous enhancement both in the insulation 

 and in the carrying capacity of the wire. As an 

 example of recent work in ocean telegraphy let 

 us glance at the cable laid in 1894, by the Com- 

 mercial Cable Company of New York. It unites 

 Cape Canso, on the northeastern coast of Nova 

 Scotia, to Waterville, on the southwestern coast 

 of Ireland. The central portion of this cable 

 47 



