ATLANTIC TELEGEAPHY. 
551 
been given showing the difference between telegraphic cables 
which have been laid snccessfullj_, and this one Tvhich has so 
signally failed. We read in a ISlaiTative^,^'’ by Mr. John C. 
Deane_, ^^We all clustered around Mr. Canning to examine 
the cable _5 and the conclusion^ I may say^ then unanimously 
arrived at was, that the injury was the deed of an assassin^s 
hand — some demon in human form, who had deliberately driven 
into the external hemp a piece of wire used in the manufacture 
of the cable, having made an incision right through the gutta 
percha. One end of the piece of iron was sharp, as if it had 
been cut with nippers, the end coming out at the other side 
was broken off abruptly. One may easily imagine the indig- 
nation which this dreadful act created. Mr. Canning conferred 
with his assistants as to what was the best course to be taken. 
It was ultimately decided that the cablemen should be asked 
to examine the injury, and to give their opinion to the chief 
engineer. A meeting was held, and they arrived at the unani- 
mous conclusion — ^ that it was done by wicked design.'’ This 
was on the 31st of July, and on the 2nd of August — There 
is a piece of wire ! was again proclaimed, and the enterprise 
was virtually at an end. Let us hope that accident, and not 
design, has led to this failure. It would be saddening to sup- 
pose that any man could be sufficiently degraded to sacrifice 
in tins way the vast interests involved, and thus delay the 
accomplishment of so great an object. Of the condition of 
the Atlantic sea bottom nothing has yet been said. The map 
(fig. 1, PI. XX.) shows, on a small scale, the direction in which 
the cable was laid, and the section (fig. 2) shows the bed of the 
Atlantic from Valencia to Newfoundland. No line could possibly 
be more favourable than this for a telegraphic cable, when once 
it was securely placed upon its bed. In the stiU and dark 
depths, without motion, it would have rested amidst ooze and 
mud. The only difficulty which was expected was on the edge 
of the Irish bank. This had been stated to present a sheer 
precipice of nearly 300 fathoms. A careful survey, by E. 
Hoskyn, master commanding Her Majesty^s ship Porciqnnej 
has, however, proved this to be a gradual incline, presenting 
no real difficulty (fig. 3) . 
The difficulties in the way of recovering the cable from the 
depths in which it lies buried are exceedingly great. Professor 
Airy said, The whole question of submerging a cable was a 
problem of a most abstruse nature, far exceeding* the complica- 
tion of the motions of a planetary body through the heavens."” 
It may with equal, if not more, truth be said, that the problem 
of lifting a cable througli more than two miles of water — -thus 
compelling it to describe two constantly varying curves, v, ith 
all the resistance due to the dras* of the ooze and mud of the sea 
