80 MISCELLANEOUS. 
her immense advantages over any other ship afloat. She could steam away from 
a broadside, or bear down upon a slower ship and deliver a concentrated fire of 
the heaviest guns, and receive no harm in return. It is only when the Warrior 
and Black Prince meet with ships of equal speed, power, and armament, that we 
shall be able to ascertain what is the progress which science has made in the art 
of maritime warfare. 
The British Government have decided upon building two more ships, similar 
in almost every respect to the Warrior and the Black Prince, and tenders for 
their construction have been invited from the Thames [ron Ship Building Com- 
pany, Messrs. Napier and Co, of the Clyde, and some other large ship building 
firms. 
THE RECENT EXPEDITIONS OF THE “ BULLDOG” AND THE “ FOX,” 
(Condensed from an article in the London Times). 
The expeditions sent out during the late summer by the British Government 
and the promoters of the North Atlantic Telegraph, respectively, for the purpose 
of examining into the practicability of the proposed scheme for carrying a line of 
telegraph from Europe to America via Faroe, Iceland, and Greenland, have at 
length returned, having successfully accomplished their arduous mission. Al- 
though the season was severe, and in every respect the most unfavorable for the 
route that has oecurred for nearly half acentury, the difficulties encountered, were 
not such as could. prevent or retard the successful establishment of the line. It 
will be remembered that Her Majesty’s ship, Bulldog, under the command of Sir 
Leopold M‘Clintock, left England for the purpose of examining the depths of the 
sea between the various stations on the proposed route. The depths from his 
careful examination have proved altogether more favourable for the laying of a 
eable than those on which the former American cable was successfully submerged, 
the water being 400 fathoms less in its deepest parts. The Bulldog left the 
north of Scotland on the 1st of July for the Faroe Islands, taking soundings 
about midway, where, according to the charts, the depth was 680 fathoms, but 
finding soundings readily in 254 fathoms with a favorable bottom—a depth in 
which the laying of almost any kind of cable would be a matter of certainty. 
The Bulldog, after visiting several places among the wild and beautiful islands of 
the Faroe group, sounded across to Ingolfs Hofde, in Iceland. In this section of the 
route no difficulties were experienced, the average depth being under 300 fathoms, 
and the bottom being mostly of a favorable character. Sir Leopold M‘Clintock 
subsequently visited and examined Faxe Bay, on the north-west coast of Iceland, 
which, notwithstanding the popular belief to the contrary, is as free from ice and 
icebergs as the shores of the Isle of Wight. From Iceland to Greenland, across 
what is technically called the Greenland Sea, the soundings were, as had been 
expected, found by the Bulldog to be deeper than on the Iceland and Faroe section 
of the route, but still the greatest depth was nearly 900 fathoms less than the 
deepest portion of the direct route. It is a remarkable fact, as showing the 
erroneous impressions which have prevailed even among scientific men respecting 
this region, that no ice was found away from the shore where the charts of Manby 
and Scoresby represent the sea as impenetrably covered with it. The Bulldog 
