436 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



almost certainly the fault would either be found on 

 board, or but a very short distance overboard, and 

 would be reached and cut out with scarcely any 

 risk, if really prompt measures, as above described, 

 are taken at the instant of the appearance of a 

 fault, to stop as soon as possible with safety the 

 further egress of the cable. 



The most striking part of the Atlantic under- 

 taking proposed for 1866, is that by which the 

 1,200 miles of excellent cable laid in 1865 is to be 

 utilised by completing the line to Newfoundland. 



That a cable lying on the bottom in water two 

 miles deep can be caught by a grapnel and raised 

 several hundred fathoms above the bottom, was 

 amply proved by the eight days' work which 

 followed the breakage of the cable on the 3rd of 

 August last. Three times out of four that the 

 grapnel was let down, it caught the cable, on each 

 occasion after a few hours of dragging, and with 

 only 300 or 400 fathoms more of rope than the 

 2,100 required to reach the bottom by the shortest 

 course. The time when the grapnel did not 

 hook the cable it came up with one of its flukes 



