502 Proceedings of the Boyal Society 
to stop as soon as possible with safety the further egress of the 
cable. 
The most striking part of the Atlantic undertaking proposed for 
1866, is that by which the 1200 miles of excellent cable laid in 
1865 is to be utilised by completing the line to Newfoundland. 
That a cable lying on the bottom in water two miles deep can 
be caught by a grapnel and raised several hundred fathoms above 
the bottom, was amply proved by the eight days’ work which 
followed the breakage of the cable on the 3d of August last. Three 
times out of four that the grapnel was let down, it caught the 
cable, on each occasion after a few hours of dragging, and with 
only 300 or 400 fathoms more of rope than the 2100 required to 
reach the bottom by the shortest course. The time when the grap- 
nel did not hook the cable it came up with one of its flukes caught 
round by its chain; and the grapnel, the short length of chain next 
it, and about 200 fathoms of the wire-rope, were proved to have been 
dragged along the bottom, by being found when brought on board 
to have interstices fllled with soft light gray ooze (of which the 
speaker showed a specimen to the Eoyal Society). These results 
are quite in accordance with the dynamical theory indicated above 
(see Appendix II.), according to which a length of such rope as the 
electric cable, hanging down with no weight at its lower end, and 
held by a ship moving through the water at half a mile an hour, 
would slope down to the bottom at an angle from the vertical of only 
22° ; and the much heavier and denser wire-rope that was used for 
the grappling would go down at the same angle with a considerably 
more rapid motion of the ship, or at a much steeper slope with 
the same rate of motion of the ship. 
The only remaining question is : How is the cable to be brought 
to the surface when hooked ? The operations of last August failed 
from the available rope, tackle, and hauling machine not being 
strong enough for this very unexpected work. On no occasion was 
the electric cable broken.* With strong enough tackle, and a 
^ The strongest rope available was a quantity of rope of iron wire and 
hemp spun together, able to bear 14 tons, which was prepared merely as huoy- 
rope (to provide for the contingency of being obliged, by stress of weather or 
other cause, to cut and leave the cable in deep or shallow water), and was 
accordingly all in 100 fathoms-lengths, joined by shackles with swivels. The 
