THE OCEAN CABLE. 649 



We have now to follow the inventors, electricians, and com- 

 manders to the land, and detail the ovations of which they were 

 the honored objects. The public will long remember the elo- 

 quence of the orators who dilated upon the theme, the inspired 

 language in which the newspapers held forth to their amazed 

 subscribers, and the prophetic vein in which the clergy felt 

 justly entitled to indulge. Fifty years from now, those who were 

 boys on the 16th of August will tell, with undiminished interest, 

 of the tar-barrels and bonfires, the salutes and fireworks, the 

 illuminations and torchlight processions, which, from one end 

 of the country to the other, welcomed the inspiring tidings and 

 made the summer night gorgeous with flames and clamorous 

 with artillery. The cable is at length laid through the bed of 

 the Atlantic Ocean. Over what jagged mountain-ranges is that 

 slender filament carried ! In what deep oceanic valleys does it 

 rest ! Through what strange and unknown regions, among things 

 how uncouth and wild, must it thread its way ! Still, in spite 

 of this first magnificent success, deep-sea telegraphing must be 

 regarded as in its very infancy ; and doubtless many new and 

 even more marvellous feats will yet be performed claiming ad- 

 mission among the achievements of Man upon — or rather be- 

 neath — the Sea. 



Perhaps the best among the numerous good things suggested 

 by the happy return of the Telegraphic Fleet was the following 

 sentiment: — "The Equator and the Cable: the former an 

 imaginary line which divides the poles, the latter a veritable 

 line which connects the hemispheres!" 



"Far, far below ocean s neavmg breast, 

 Where the storm-spirit ever is hush'd to rest, 

 The cable now lies on its snowy bed,- — 

 The glittering ashes of ocean's dead ; 

 And storms shall not break nor tempests sever 

 This arch of promise, for ever and ever, 

 Till an angel shall stand wiih one foot on the sea 

 And swear that time no longer shall be." 



