The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-02-27

While public interest in the pro-
posed cable to connect Honolulu
with San Francisco is more than
revived in the light of recent
events, everything connected with
its possible institution will be of
interest, and more especially since
the upper house of the American
Congress has passed an appropria-
ton of half a million dollars
toward laying the first installment
of it. The next steamer from the
Coast will doubtless bring the joy
full intelligence that the lower
house has also passed the bill.
Should this be go, the work by the
very terms of the act must be COM
menced Immediately. Happily
there will be no delay caused in
making surveys, as that has al
ready been done, and so we'll that
any more work in that direction
would simply be wasting time and
money. I he bed of the Pacific
ocean hes been surveyed so often
that its surface characteristics and
general formation are pretty we'll
known. A late San Francisco
paper contains the following:
The first survey was made by Lieu
tenant Brooks in the schooner Feni-
more Cooper in 1860. He surveyed
from San Francisco to Honolulu, and
found no obstacles to prevent the sue
cess of the undertaking of q cable.
The second survey was made by
Captain (now AdmiraD George Z.
Beiknap in the United States ship
Tuscarora IN 1874 He first surveyed
along the great northern circle route
across the Pacific to Japan. On his
return he surveyed to San Francisco
via the Bonin Islands and Honolulu.
He also found no obstacles to a cable
via the BOnin Islands and Honolulu.
Afterward careful surveys were
made between Hawaii and points on
the California coast 10y the United
States steamers Ranger, Thetls and
AlbatrOss.
According to all accounts the route
SURVEYED by the AlbatrosS under the
direction of Lieutenant-Comma
Richardson Glover, which terminates
at Salinas Landing, in Monterey Bay,
is the most available. 1t is the one
which will undoubtedly be selected
for the cable which is to come, with
perhaps a slight change at this end.
At that point q submarine valley
| has been discovered, commencing at
| the mouth of what was f.rmerly the
| Salinas River, and running westerly
| at the bottom of the sea for few
miles, furnishing a most remarkable
artificial bed for laying cable. The
entire absence of rocks and the pres
ence of deep soft mud and SAND
! throughout this valley seems to have
| prepared it for this special seET1ce OF a
! telegraph cable.
| 1t is shown by the report OF Lieut.
| enant Clover that for the entire die
| tance from the California shore to the
| terminus near Diamond Head the
| oceans bed on this route Is destitute
| of rocks of any kind, while the bed
| for the most part consists OF soft ooze
| and mud, into which a cable Will sink
| several feet and be entirely suomerg-
| ed and protected.
"Our survey" reports Lieutenant
| Glover, "was prosecuted with all the
! care and accuracy that the means Tor
| modern deep sea research afford, and
it is believed that the maps and OBJ
servatiOns present q good knowledge
| of the route aud establish the fact that
the laying Of a cable on almost any
line between California and the Ha'
waiian Islands is practicable.
"a lane about $50 miles wide was
developed between California and
Hawaii, anil the results seem to lndl-
cate the most favorable route to he
rhumb line between Monterey Bay
and Honolulu. This route has been
determined upon as toe most practl-
cable, Sinc,. it ia the Que that Will re-
duire n minimum length Of cable IN
passing over an even bOttU m, consist
ing Of soil which IL favor; rie for Its
protection and preservation, avoiding
submarine mount anu volcano
regions where substances exercising
an Injurious chemical action on the
covering 0f the cable are likely To eX
ist, and where future cOuNuiSioU% may
cause its destructiou."
Under this report every thing ~ ia
vOrable to the laying of the cable III
direct line from Oahu TO this coast, .
distance Of 209S miles on an ocean nee
specially prepared 10y nature ioT the
! purpose. Its cost, too, would De a
least $5O0,OOO less than 10y construct
ing a cable by way OF Vancouver:
The plan of the survey made 10y