The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-01-28
Scientific.
TaE60RAN.

North Pacific Exploring Expedition nm
der the command of Lieutenant Rodg-
ers, and from this valuable document we
take the following interesting extract -
"Deep sea s~oundings, with specimens of
the bottom, have also been returned to
this Office from that expedition. They
we're taken in the North Pacific with
Brooke's apparatus, and have been stud.
led through the microscope of Professor
Baiiy at West Point. They all tell the
same story. They teach US that the
quiet Of the grave reigns everywhere in
the profound depths of the ocean; that
the repose here is beyond the reach of
wind-it is SO perfect that none of the
powers of earth, save only the earthquake
and volcano, can disturb it. The spec.
linens of deep sea ~soundings, for which
we are indebted to the ingenuity of Lieu
tenant Brooke, are as pure and as free
from the sand Of the sea as the snow
fake that falls when it is calm upon the
sea is from the dust of the earth. In
deed, these soundings suggest the idea
| that the sea, like the snow-cloud with its
fakes in q calm, is always letting fall up
on its bed showers of these microscopic
shells and we may readily imagine that
The sunless wrecks" which strew its
bottom are, in the process of ages, hid
under this ieecy covering, presenting
the rounded appearance which is seen
over the body of the traveller who has
rerished in the snow-storm. The ocean,
especially within and lear the tropics
swarm with life. The remains of it's
myriads of moving things are conveyed
by currents, and scattered and lodged in
the course of time all over its bottom.
This process, continued for ages, has GOV.
cred the depth of the ocean as with a
mantle, consisting of organisms as deli
cate as the macled frost, and as light as
the uudrifted snow fake on the noun
tain. Wherever this beautiful sounding
rod has reached the bottom of the deep
sea, whether in the Atlantic or Pacific.
the bed of the ocean has been found of a
down-like softness. The lead appears to
sink many feet deep into the, onzy mat
ter there which has been strained and
filtered through the sea water. This
matter consists of the skeletons and casts
of insects of the sea of microscopic mi.
nuteness. The fact that the currents do
not reach down to the bottom of the
deep sea that there are no abrading
agents at work there, save alone the
guawing tooth of time ; that a rope of.
sand, If stretched upon the bed of the
ocean, WouN be a cable strong enough to
hold the longest telegrapAic aciye thai
art can draao ; these, with other discov-
cries made in the course of the ~investi.
cations carried on in the Photographed
department of this Office concerning the
physics of the sea, and already announc-
ed in i 8 official publications and cores.
pondence, are likely to prove of great
practical value and importance in SUBJ
marine telegra pby-a line of business
only in the first stage of its infancy. but
deeply interesting to the whole human
familNi for in its bearings and results
it touches most nearly the progress of
man in the march that is leading him
upward and onward. The notion was
that a telegraphic cable must be of great
strength to resist and Withstand the
forces of the sea. Whereupon the con-
Quoting wire, after being coated to in
s~ulation with gutta-percha, was encased
in a wire hawser or cable stout enough
to hold the largest 'seventy-four" to
her anchors. These cables we're very
expensive in their manufacture, bulky
for stowage, uuaieldy for handling and
difficult to lay. 1t was such q wire laid
cable that the Telegraphic Company lost
in the laying between Newfoundland
and Cape Breton, in 1855; and it is
such a one-wire-laid, stiff and larger
tEan a mans arm-that the French have
twice attempted to lay in the Mediter-
~raneau, and twice lost. But now we
have learned, in the course of these in
vestigatioDs, that all the obstacles inter
posed by the sea to the laying of sub
marine telegraphs lie between The sur
face and the depth of a few hundred
fsthoms below; ard that these are not
TO be mastered by force, nor overcome
by the tensile strength of wire-drawn
ropes, but that. with a little a%rtifce,
they will yield to a mere thread. 1t is
the case of a man Of. war and the nauti.
lus in the hurricane-the one weak in
its strength. is d shed to pieces; the
other, strong IN its weakness, ~resists tho
storm, and rides as safely through it az
though there were no rngings in the sea.
Therefore, it may now be considered as
q settled principle in submarine tele-
graphy that the true character of a Ca
bic for the deep sea is not that of iron
rope as large as a mans arm, but a sin
gle copper wire, or n fascicle of wires,
coated with gutta- percha, plant and sup
pie, aud not larger than a lady's fin.
ger"
FINE ILLUsTRArIoN.-Prof. Mitchell,