210 
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 
precious jewels, which science or the expert hand of philosophy 
will not fail to bring out, polished, and bright, and beautifully 
adapted to man's purposes. Already we are obtaining practical 
answers to this question as to the use of deep-sea soundings ; for 
as soon as they were announced to the public, they forthwith as- 
sumed a practical bearing in the minds of men with regard to the 
question of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic. 
446, There is at the bottom of this sea, between Cape Race in 
Newfoundland and Cape Clear in Ireland, a remarkable steppe, 
which is already known as the telegraphic plateau. A company 
is now engaged with the project of a submarine telegraph across 
the Atlantic. It is proposed to carry the wires along this plateau 
from the eastern shores of Newfoundland to the western shores 
of Ireland. The great circle distance between these tw^o shore- 
lines is one thousand six hundred miles, and the sea along the 
route IS probably nowhere more than ten thousand feet deep. 
This company, it is understood, consists of men of enterprise and 
wealth, who, should the mquiries that they are now making prove 
satisfactory, are prepared to undertake the establishment forth- 
with of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic. 
447, It was upon this plateau that Brooke's soundmg apparatus 
437) brought up its first trophies from the bottom of the sea. 
These specimens Lieutenant Berryman and his officers judged to 
be clay ; but they took the precaution to label them, carefully to 
preserve them, and, on their return to the United States, to send 
them to the proper bureau. They were divided : a part was sent 
for examination to Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, and a part to 
Professor Bailey, of West Point — eminent microscopists both. I 
have not heard from the former, but the latter, in November, 1853, 
thus responded : 
448, " I am greatly obliged to you for the deep soundings you 
sent me last week, and I have looked at them with great interest , 
They are exactly what I have wanted to get hold of. The bottom 
of the ocean at the depth of more than two miles I hardly hoped 
ever to have a chance of examining ; yet, thanks to Brooke's con- 
trivance, we have it clean and free from grease, so that it can at 
once be put under the microscope. I was greatly delighted to 
find that all these deep soundings are filled with microscopic 
shells ; not a particle of sand or gravel exists in them. They are 
