The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-02-09

and adapt their means. They can not even
be called lucky, as having.met with fine
weather, or happened to hit on the right
spot, for they had rather moro than their
share Of gales, and dead calms, and fogs,
and drifting currents; accidental failures,
drawing OF splices, miles OF rope lost,
twisting of grapnel fukcs, breaking ofI
strands, and noisless slipping of cable out
Of hold, no one knew how. The means
were in proportion to the end, and were
only just sufficient. Here was the larg-
est ship ever built, and it aas aided by
two ships, ono Of them the Terrible
which once ranked high in the navy, and
and was to be the conqucrer in many a
sea duel, but has lived to do better ser.
vice, though not to fulfill tho promise of
its name. The grapnel ropes were seve-
raj miles long, and made to stand the
strain Of nraSy tonsexactly measured by
the dynamometer. There were frst-rate
seamen, frst-rate electricians, frst-rate
engineers, frst-rate cablemcn, with every
possible appliance. There we're immense
iron buoys ready to be dropped instantly
to mark spot, or TO hold the blight OF
the cable if it should be caught. The
cable was caught some half.dozen times,
only to slip, to break the tackel, or to be
itself broken. It was once recovered and
actually seen by mortal eye, with its
white oozy coat but only to be lost
again. 1t was necessary al last, to sacri-
fee eighty miles Of cable, and otry less
depth, which however, proved not much
less, Who, indeed, can say that the task
was found a bit less dificalt than had
been supposed when he attempts to rca-
lie this struggle With known aud un-
known difficulties Think of the sunless
skies, the midnight darkness, the loss of
bearings, the separations, and the general
absence Of general information or safe
onjeeture in which these ships were
dredging for cable hoped to be still in
existence three miles below their keels.-
1t was midnight when it made its appear
ance, as if from another world, and wes
secured. With this messenger of the
deep communication was Immediately
opened with fellow -laborers setting on the
cliffs Of Valentia two thousand miles of,
and with all the inhabitants Of the civil
lied world.
The recovered cable verifes what was
hoped, and also what was feared, Of its
ocean bed. That vast submarine desert
has not the terrible, iusurmounable OBJ.
structions that tho world had imagined.
1t consists apparently of immense plains
with mountainous ridges, the whole coy-
cred With fine ooze the slow deposit of
countless ages, aud found By the miscro-
scope to consist of shells. All the ages.
il would seem, have not coyered the bot
tom TO depth more than sufficient to
cover half the cable, which game up par
ticolored, black back and white belly
So far all looks well for future operations
of this kind But, on the other hand,
tie damage done to the grapnel irons,
and changes OF pressure on the drawing
in gear, prove that there are serious OBJ
Istructions in that oozy bed-Eroclas IN stu,
probably huge blocks dropped by icebergs.
Man himself has contributed good deal,
tor, not to speak of the sunken argosies
whom the poets love to dream of, the
smallest craft weighty enough to lie at
the bottom would break grapnel or its
rope. But it is not probable that either
these or any other distractions occupy
more than a very small part of the bed
which in other respects is just what men
: would have desired it to be for the pur.
pose of an electric cable. It rests there
on its soft bed, in unbrokcn calm. and al
an inaccessible distance from its human
foes. No tempest, no war, no other cas-.
ual mischief can reachit there, and it
only enemy will be that material decay
which science will soon be able to measure
and in some degree counteract. But al
ready great mystery has been dispelled
and one more impossibility struck off the
old list. What next? Well, a GOOD
deal remains to be done. There is work
enough for many such expeditions, anG
openings for many such successes, il
people viii but perceive what they
choose to call impossibilities are only diff
d culties, to be encountered by adequate
means. :.