AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 441 



the best and strongest sewing silks, which appeared in our market In the 

 richest Italian and other packages. 



The Institute held a Silk Convention in this City, on the 12th of October, 

 1843, whose proceedings occupy 153 pages of our published volume of 1843. 



The following paper, written by the Secretary, Henry Meigs, was read. 

 (Mr. Meigs pronounced its utter failure while it was being laid.) 



THE ATLANTIC CABLE— A TELEQRArH VIA BEHRINO's STRAITS. 



In May, 1857, the Mechanics' Club said that the project as then proposed 

 would fail ; but the opinion was offered by Mr, Tillman that the proper 

 route would be by Behring's Straits, and that the C2ar of Russia should 

 Undertake it. 



A map of that strait was then drawn by the Secretary of the Club, and 

 is now in the rooms of the institute. 



The whole proceedings are reported in the published transactions of 1847. 



Great opposition was made to the proposed plan. 



The Czar took up the plan some time ago, but the action thereon is not 

 known here. 



The Parliament of Canada have already passed an act creating a com- 

 pany to connect the East and West by telegraph wires across Behring's 

 Straits. 



Our map is drawn according to the best authority, ending with the latest 

 survey — that by Captain Beechey. The whole distance from Cape Prince 

 of Wales to East Cape is fifty miles, and midway between the islands Rat- 

 manoff, four miles long, and Kruzenstern, two miles long, and a bare rock 

 near — so that from our Cape to Batmanoff is twenty-eight miles, and thence 

 to East Cape twenty-two miles. From a moderate elevation on Batmanoff 

 both continents are at once visible. The depth of water is about 290 feet. 

 The ice cannot come down from the Arctic ocean because the current always 

 sets through the strait, to the northward. Here then can be laid, if ne- 

 cessary, a thousand wires, and thus enable the world to maintain a corres- 

 pondence which would be impossible on one or even many ocean wires. 

 We all know how difficult it is for our telegraph lines to avoid a cut when 

 great speculation needs it. At any rate unless the telegraph cables bo 

 made highway and post roads to every body, their utility is miserably re- 

 duced. And if the lines can be made accessible to every body, millions of 

 messages will pass instead of a few hundreds. Relations, friends and men 

 of business all over the world will keep thousands of telegraph wires in 

 constant employment. 



The cables laid in the straits will be readily taken Up for repair ; the 

 nations will protect the lines using them, as they pass through their towns ; 

 altogether affording an income greater than any national revenue from all 

 other sources. 



The 800 mile cable in the Mediterranean has ceased to operate. 



Vitus Behring was a Dane — entered the Russian navy in 1707. 



The Empress Catharine wanted to know whether Asia and America were 



