The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-11-11
CHARLOTTE, MECKLENBURG COUN1
6eneral gnteIliqente.
SOUNDING THE ATLANTIC.

| New York on Tuesday, has sounded the
Atlantic all the way across, finding thu
greatest depth 2,070 fathoms, (more thar
two miles.) 1t was not accomplished with
out difficulties, as many of the instruments
used were new inventions. The bed of the
ocean in the section traversed by the Arc
| tic is plateau, as already announced by
| Capt. Bergman, who had twice before
sounded across the Atlantic.
The bottom in the deepest pr is very
fine mud, of Il mouse grey color, SO sofi
that the sounding instruments frequently
sank several feet into the mud. They
brought up specimens of the bottom, at
every sounding, in quills which were at
tached to the end of the sounding instru-
ment. Toward the shore on each side this
mud changes into a fine green ooze. No
other substances were met with--no rock,
nor anything that might prove fatal to a
telegraph wire. There seems to be now
nothing to hinder the great work, to unite
Europe and America by means Of tele-
graph wire-an undertaking SO grand that
few thought it possible. The whole dis
tance across was found to be 1,649 sea
miles, from St. John, n. B., to Valentia
Harbor, ireland. The greatest depth was
found nearly in the centre between the two
places. The profile of the Atlantic bed on
this route is of by far easier grade than
many Of our railroad profiles.
The following account, written by an
officer of the United States steamer Arctic,
in relation to the sounding for the Atlantic
te egraph, addressed the editor of the Illus
trdted London Ne,cs, will be read with in
terest:
Not a single rock has been met with,
not particle of gravel or sand has been
brought up. but it appears as if Nature
had provided bed soft as a snow bank
to use Maury's own words, for the express
purpose Of receiving a telegraph cable.
Lieut.. Bergman says that he is satisfied
that the lead, with the sounding appara-
tus, has frequently buried itself ten or ff-
teen feet deep in this soft material, and he
upuulS IloG luub CuD1G VIII 1ihSHIEC
sink and imhed itself in similar manner.
The greatest depth attained has been two
and seventy fathcms, about two
and q third miles; but perhaps the most
and at the same time the most
result is the perfect confrma-
tion which these soundings give of the
opinion of Lieut.. Maury as to the existence
of great flat or level at the bottom of the
ocean, unparalleled by anything on the
surface of the earth, and which he proposes
TO name The Telegraph Plateau For
more than thirteen hundred miles the bot
tom Of the Atlantic, IN the direct line of
our track, is found by these soundings to
present an almost unbroken level plain
Nature has thus placed no obstacle in the
way of this great undertaking which may
not by cautious perseverance be overcome,
nay, rather Gf we except the enormous
length of the cable which will be requircd)
it would seem that the line to be followed
by the Atlantic cable presents absolutely
fewer engineering difficulties than the short !
ar route Though more complex, from the
nature of the bottom) on which the Mediter- ,
ranean cable must be lad.''