The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-08-22

temperature Of the Pacific is constant at depths
ranging from l 600 to 3,O54 fathoms. The great
depth within less than a hundred miles of Homo
lulu-3. 023 fathoms-would indicate the correct
ness Of the geological theory previously enter
tanned, that these Islands are only the tops of
submerged mountains.
The Tusooro-a left this port on the 18th of
March last, to continue her sOundings westward.
The following is a summary of Commander Belk-
maps report to the Navy Department
The passage was by way of the BONN Islands. and
made in "a days, Yokohama having been reached
April %. Seventy-three casts we're made, and in
such q satisfactory manner that a person standing on
the top-gallant forecastle and watching the RAINING
out Of the wire could tell the moment the bottom was
reached. Some variations IN the sounding apparatus
we're made, which need not be described here. By
two unfortunate accidents a little more than seven
miles Of the piano wire were lost, although up TO this
time il had shown extraordinary tenacity. and that
with which the s~oundings began was still in use. The
greatest depth found was 3,2s7 fathoms. or about
three and three-quarter statute miles, which was in
the neighbOrhOod Of the BONN group.
A range of submarine mountains was found with
soil Of varied character, the valleys sending up light
yellOw-broRn ooze or mud in the specimen-cups, and
the sides and tops Of the mountains, coral, limestone
and sand, with fragments Of lava. In three or four
instances, too, solid rock was struck, the cups coming
up empty, and the points freshly battered; in others
the ooze from the plateaus was found to contain parti-
cles and fragments Of lava, and in one specimen,
brought up sixty miles from the base of oae Of the
snbmarine peaks quite a lump of the same material
was found. Coral, sand and lava were also found all
the way from the BONN group to the coast of Japan,
and the entire region west of the Hawaiian Islands
would seem to have been subjected at some remote
period to volcanic disturbances. Six Of these sub
marine mountains were found, varying from 900 to
1900 feet in hight lying in range with Marcus ISL
and, which last Commander Belknap supposed to
form the apex of a volcanic cone. Time did not per-
init to sound in the vicinity OF the mountains, so as
to determine their conformation and discover whether
they were detached or connected in ridges, but he in
ferred that he had discovered what Professor Dana
thought would be most curious, a range of deep sea
cones or sunken volcanic islands, The ocean-bed
between the BONN Islands and the entrance to Yedo
Bay was found to be very irregular. The deepest
water found here was 2,435 and the next deepest
] ,696 fathoms.
The last advices from the TusearorG were dated
Yokohama. New wire had been received, necessary
repairs had been made, and it was expected to renew
the s~oundings towards the Aleutan Islands as soon
as the season was far enough advanced to permit,
NnHOu VIII piOOdOiy " Outy Otu
This sketch of the surveys of the vessel should not
be close without paying a high compliment to the
officers, who are all, from the Captain down,
thoroughly skilled in their own craft, and otherwise
admirably qualified for so great an undertaking.
They have pursued the work with a zeal and earnest
ness hardly expected of men detailed to an arduous
and Lot altogether agreeable duty.
As we said at the outset, a cable from San
EranoiSnn N WnlrnEap,o 90 I'll tbaf - ,n,u raoIoA
to complete the electric girdle of the world.
London is the worlds great telegraph center.
No less than eleven cables are found necessary to
the electric intercourse of the British isles with
the rest of the globe. These extend to Christia-
MIA, Copenhagen, Bremen, Belgium, Calais,
Havre, Brest, Lisbon, Belfast and Dublin. The
line to Copenhagen is continued to st. Peters
burg, Moscow, and thence eastward to China and
Japan. Two lines, one through Warsaw and
Southern Russia, and another through Vienna,
Constantinople and Asia Minor, connect London
with the Persian Gulf. The line from London
to Suez is a continuous cable, via Lisbon, the
Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea,
tapped by a cable at Malta. A continuous cable
down the Red Sea and across the portion of the
Indian ocean called the Sea of Arabia connects
Suez with Bombay. Hindostan is connected
with Farther India and Malacca by a cable from
Ceylon, and by a land line and cable that follow
the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Cables that
diyerge at Singapore connect Malacca with Hong
kong and Shanghai, and with Java, Australia
and New Zealand. The Russian telegraph line
touches the coast at Pinghwang, north of the
Isthmus of Corea, whence a cable is laid to
Shanghai, connected by a shorter one with Japan.
South America is now in Geographic communi-
cations with Europe and the rest of the world. a
cable extends from Lisbon to the Cape de Verde
Islands, and a new one from those islands to Per-
nambuco, in Brazil, has been successfully laid,
and is now in operation. From Pernambuco of
course there are wires to Rio and the other
important cities of the Brazilian empire. 1t is
to be expected that lines will be run across the
continent to the Western States of South America,
which will also thus be brought into communica-
ton with the rest of the world.
Mr.. Field, the father of Ocean Telegraphy,
was recently in San Francisco, where he made
known some of his plans for carrying forward the
great work of connecting by cable the continents
of America and Asia. When he is satisfied that
sufficiently accurate soundings have been taken to
render possible a tolerably exact computation of
the cost of the cable, he will proceed to form his
company, and the work of manufacturing the
cable will be speedily commenced. The Great
Eastern, drawing forty feet of water when loaded,
will be engaged to lay the cable. The following
are Mr.. Fields calculations as to the cost of the
cable and the tariff of charges
The cost of an ocean cable will be 81 500 per
mile. From San Francisco to Yokohama is about
5,TOo miles ; from the Sandwich Islands to Australia
about $500. The cost of the main cable may be
estimated then, including the laying, at S1O,OO0,-
600, and of the Australian line at So, 200, 900. 1t is
expected that the business Immediately accruing
would be $4,000 month, to be thereafter indef-
niely increased, without calculating on the business
from London, much of which would naturally take
this route. The present tariff of Asiatic and Austria