THE OCEAN UNEXPLORED AND UNEXPLORABLE 241 



then the careful laying of the cable among the sea- 

 bed with all its irregularities, so that the strain of its 

 being stretched from one submerged mountain peak to 

 another should not be too great for its strength ; and, 

 lastly, the perfect protection of the cable against the 

 corroding influence of the sea-water. Sufficient re- 

 cognition has, I fear, never been accorded to the work 

 of the cable-layers, to those quiet men, unknown, out- 

 side of their own circle, who so nonchalantly steam out 

 into the great waste of ocean, and unerringly pick up 

 the end of a broken cable from these inscrutable 

 depths, buoy it, and go off and pick up the other 

 end. The subsequent work of reuniting those ends 

 is comparatively easy, a mere matter of mechanics, 

 wonderful enough, of course, to the great majority of 

 people who have never considered the mechanical 

 difficulties in the way, but, compared with the 

 spectacle of the dot of a ship pausing at the exact 

 spot in the illimitable ocean to drop a grappling down 

 six or seven thousand feet and pick up a thread 

 from the bottom, as simple as the alphabet to a 

 reader. 



In these days of mathematical and engineering 

 wonders we take too much for granted, using the 

 amazing marvels of science without a thought of the 

 " how it is done," of the nameless unknown toilers 

 who have conspired to make life easy for us, who have 

 dared to enchain the lightning from the clouds and 

 bid it run through the bowels of the earth or along 

 the sea-bed to carry our messages for comfort of gain ; 

 but I know that our appreciation of these marvels 

 would be far greater and our enjoyment of life itself 

 be enhanced wondrously if we would but consider the 



It 



