464 MISCELLANEOXTS. 



Words o'er the Ocean! — 'Worcls! 



Words on the Lightning's wing ! 

 For a conjuring cord our Planet girds — 



The arc of a mystic ring. 



Thro' old Neptune's wide domain. 



With a Time-out-rivalling rate, 

 It beareth the thoughts of the busy braiis— 



A noiseless— a glorious freight J 



Secret, 'neath tidal wave 



It treadeth the trackless main ; — 

 The Spirit Medium stretching afar, — 



The grand Electric Chain ! 



'Tis done !— at length 'tis done ! 



No vain Utopian scheme, 

 God-like mind hath a triumph won 



Beyond all that the mind could dresm. 



The Song of the Seraph-Host 



On Judea's plains hath been 

 Wafted from coast to utmost coast 



By England's righteous Queen. 



Hail to thee— bridal clasp ! 



Emblem for evermore. 

 Of the troth 'twixt Britain's rock-bound Isle 



And Columbia's wooded shore ! 



J. P. H., St. Mary's, Aug. 14, 1858, 



It is a fact, not unworthy of note, in the laying of the Atlantic Cable, that its 

 final success, after repeated failures, may be ascribed mainly, if not altogether, to 

 the abandonment of the elaborate machinery designed for regulating the rate at 

 which the cable should be submerged, and literally "giving it its chance." It is 

 also interesting to learn now that the existence of the " Telegraph Plateau," which 

 the Atlantic soundings were supposed to have revealed, proves to be more than 

 doubtful. The reported soundings of Lieutenant Berryman of the United States 

 Navy, when carefully examined, and employed to guage the outline of the Atlantic 

 bottom, reveal no such uniform submarine plain, free from all undulations, as the 

 projectors of the transatlantic telegraph were induced to found on the report of 

 these soundings. Again the soundings made by Lieutenant Dayman, R. N., differ 

 very considerably from those of Lieutenant Berryman, U.S.N. ; and it now seems 

 very questionable if either observations can be regarded as more than a very vague 

 and partial approximation to the average depth. Relying, however, on the sup- 

 posed proofs of a submarine ledge, or great " Telegraph Plateau," extending from 

 the coast of Newfoundland to Ireland, the laying of the Telegraphic Cable has 

 been attempted ; and beneath the waves of the Atlantic, the mysterious electric 

 current has already borne its winged messages, swift as thought, from the Old 

 World to the New. 



