The Hawaiian gazette., 1893-01-31
TRANS-PACLFIC CABLE.

The bill just introduced into the
Senate by Morgan of Alabama and
into the House by McCreary of Ken
lucky to encourage the laying of a
trans-Pacifc cable does not contem-
plate, any subsidy to the enterprise,
but merely proposes to revive the
charter granted to Moreno in 1876
and forfeited for non compliance
with its conditions. 1t would seem
that more substantial grantor than
that person might easily be found.
He processes now to rely for the
money needed upon private capital
lists, some of whom he expects to find
in China, Japan and Hawaii.
Attention has lately been drawn to
the subject of trans Pacific cables
by the proposals of the Canadian
Government to substitute line from
Vancouver to Australia, and by the
contract which is reported to have
been made by some of the Australian
colonies with a French company for
cable from a point in Queensland
to Fiji and Samoa, and it is possible
that his expectations may not be
disappointed.
The general notion in this country
is that we want a cable to Japan and
China more than one to Australia.
Our trade with Australia is much
smaller than our trade with Asia,
and the population of the former is
increasing so slowly that our com
mercial exchanges cannot grow very
rapidly. And again, we are almost
without information regarding the
bed of the Pacific between the Ha-
waiian Islands and Brisbane. A hasty
survey was made by Captain Miller
of the Tuscarora in 1876, and sound
ing were taken at distances of about
one hundred miles; the greatest
depth was found to be 344S fathoms.
For an ocean cable between San
Francisco aud Japan two routes have
been considered. The northerly
route, as traced by Admiral Belknap, |
starts from Puget Sound, crosses the |
Gulf of Alaska to the Aleutian chain,
skirts that chain to Attu, the western
most island; crosses the mouth of |
Behring Sea to Petropaulovski, and |
turns southerly along the Kuriles
and the coast Of Yesso and Dai Nip
pom to Yokohama. The trouble with |
this line is that at the mouth of
Behring Sea depths of $500 and 1900
fathoms are encountered, and the
difficulty of hauling up a broken
cable through four or five miles of
water can be appreciated.
The other route runs from San
Francisco to Honolulu. This portion
of the route has been carefully sur
veyed, and presents no difficulties.
From Honolulu the cable would run
to Port Lloyd in the Bonins, dis
lance of about 1900 miles. A hasty
survey of this route was made by the
Tuscarora, and it was found that
while the bed of the ocean was badly
broken, submarine mountains being
encountered which rose from 1000 to
1900 feet from the bottom, no
sounding showed a greater depth
than 1887 fathoms-333 miles. If the
sides of the mountains are sloping,
the laying and maintenance of a
cable would encounter no insur-
mountable obstacle. From Port Lloyd
10 Yokohama the distance is about
500 miles, and the depth of water is
moderate until the trough which lies
south of the Japanese islands is
Here depths of 1000 and
2435 fsthoms are found, but they
would not be fatal. 1t will be seen
hat the only serious problem which
would have TO be solved would be
he feasibility of crossing the sub
marine mountains between Honolulu
md Port Lloyd.-S. F. Call.