I ON A PIECE OF CHALK 11 



method of sounding acquired a high commercial 

 value, when the enterprise of laying down the 

 telegraph-cable between this country and the 

 United States was undertaken. For it became a 

 matter of immense importance to know, not only 

 the depth of the sea over the whole line along 

 which the cable was to be laid, but the exact 

 nature of the bottom, so as to guard against 

 chances of cutting or fraying the strands of that 

 costly rope. The Admiralty consequently ordered 

 Captain Dayman, an old friend and shipmate of 

 mine, to ascertain the depth over the whole line 

 of the cable, and to bring back specimens of the 

 bottom. In former days, such a command as this 

 might have sounded very much like one of the 

 impossible things which the young Prince in the 

 Fairy Tales is ordered to do before he can obtain 

 the hand of the Princess. However, in the months 

 of June and July, 1857, my friend performed the 

 task assigned to him with great expedition and 

 precision, without, so far as I know, having met 

 with any reward of that kind. The specimens of 

 Atlantic mud which he procured were sent to me 

 to be examined and reported upon. 1 



1 See Appendix to Captain Dayman's Deep-sea Soundings in 

 ttit North Atlantic Ocean between Ireland and Newfoundland, 

 made inH.M.S. " Cyclops" Published by onler of the Lords 

 Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1858. They have since 

 f< tucd the subject of nn elaborate Memoir l>y Messrs. Parker 

 anl Jones, published in the Philosophical Transactions lui 

 IMS, 



