1898-99.] Soundings obtained by s.s. ‘ Britannia .’ 
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On the Survey by the S.S. ‘ Britannia’ of the Cable Route 
between Bermuda, Turk’s Islands, and Jamaica. By 
R. B. Peake, M.Inst. C.E. With Descriptions by Sir John 
Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., of the Marine Deposits brought home. 
{Communicated by Sir John Murray.) (With a Map.) 
(Read July 18, 1898.) 
I. Notes on the Sounding Cruise op S.S. ‘Britannia,’ 
by R. E. Peake. 
The following is a brief account of the principal points of interest 
resulting from the survey lately made to find a suitable route for 
a cable to be laid from Bermuda to Turk’s Islands and from 
thence to Jamaica. 
As engineers to the Direct West India Cable Co., my firm, 
Messrs Clark, Forde, & Taylor, strongly advised that a more than 
usually complete set of soundings should be taken along the route 
over which it was proposed that the cable should be laid, our 
principal reason being that, as the Bermuda group has been raised 
almost vertically from the bed of the Atlantic by volcanic action, 
it was impossible, with the limited information available, to say 
whether similar action might not have taken place elsewhere on 
the proposed route for the new cable. 
The task of carrying out this survey was undertaken by the 
Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co. with their s.s. 
‘ Britannia,’ which was fitted up with all necessary apparatus, and 
was also well adapted for the work. 
Sounding operations were commenced off Grand Turk Island on 
the 4th November 1897, and completed on the 2nd December 
following at Bermuda, during which time 182 soundings were 
taken, apart from the profile soundings taken off Grand Turk. 
The laying of the cable was commenced at Bermuda on the 5th 
January 1898, and completed on the 18th of the same month. 
As a result of this work the following suggest themselves as 
points worthy of notice : — 
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