Year: 1869

we extract the following paragraph


from an article in the Boston Post, de-


scriptive of the course of the Great East


ern from Brest to St. Pierre, Miquelon,


while laying out the French cable:


=" The cable as now laid, starts in yerv


shallow water from Mnou Bay, but in


four or five miles it dcepens from seven


teen to twenty fathoms, and then gradu-


ally shelves from thirty to sixty-eight and


ninety fathoms. At this level, but on the


whole gradpally.deepening, it continues


till in line with the westernmost part of


the Irish coast, where. taking a northern


course, it passes down gentle slope of


sand that continues descending till the


depth increases from two hundred to eight


hundred and nine hundred fathoms, and


then in short distance to one thousand


seven hundred fathoms. Over all the rest


of the course to mid ocean the bottom is


mud, shells and sand, and with a uniform


depth of about i've thousand and two


thousand two hundred fathoms. At these


great depths there is an absolute cessa-


ton of all motion, Over such bottom


the line is taken in an arc of large cir
Gle, the most southerly point of the ca
bio being in forty-two degrees north lat
ltude and the most northerly forty EIGHT
degrees. Along the southern end of the
Newfoundland Bank it is sunk in about
one hundred and fifty to two hundred faith
oms, the water on the bank itself vary
ing from fifty to ninety fathoms. Thus it
is completely sheltered from ice, which,
if the ice-bcrgs pass the bank at all, must
clear the cable, which lies under its lee,
by some hundred fathoms or more. From
this point it is taken up due north in the
channel between the Green Bank and the
st. Pierre Bank in an almost unvarying
depth Of five hundred fathoms. From this
point out the course is over very regular
shoal water, SO to spcak-bcing at no
part less than one hundred fathoms, and
generally over one hundred and ffty-to
its termination"


"Wifh uniform depth" it says 'of
about two thousand and two thousand two
hundred fathoms." The difference be-
tween two thousand and two thousand two
hundred fathoms is only twelve hundred
feet, and as two thousand two hundred faith
oms are just two miles and a half, that
difference between the maximum and
minimum depth is q mere fea-bite When |
we consider that the ocean is twice as
deep farther south, and that its bottom is
farther below the surface than the high
est mountain on the globe is above it, we
can hardly imagine how long it would |
take sinking ship to reach the mud,
where some suppose that no creature of
any description exists.


Job says: "All the rivers of the earth
run into the sea, and yet the sea is not
full" All the rivers that run into the sea
are of fresh water, and yet the sea is al
ways salt. Notwithstanding the saltness
of the sea it is as full of animal life as the
air is in summer time; from " great
whales down to small animals of the in
sect order that can hardly be seen with
out microscope. Let stick of timber
be thrown overheard in mid ocean, and in.
a very short time it will be literally load
ed with green animals six or eight inches
long, one end of which is fast to the tim
ber, and the other has bivalve on it an
inch in length. These things are as near
''SSoA "' SPiioS vi grass On the OOm-
mon, and among them, next to the tim
ber, crawling like snakes in the grass, are
hideous looking reptiles, four or five inch
es long, resembling centipedes. These
things are found thousand miles from
land, showing that the sea is full of the
seeds of animal life Barnacles will
form on the bottom of ship at sea to
such an extent as to lessen the speed one
half-so that if a ship when clean could
sail ten Knots with ease she could not
be forced through the water at greater
rate of speed than five, with full grown
barnacles on her; because all her sub
merged parts ere covered with hard, ugly
looking shells, In old times, before con
per sheathing was used, it was necessary
to heave ships down and scrapo them, al
the end of every voyage, to get off the
and other shells that fastened
on them and grew large at sea. Now, in 4
what form docs the barnaclc first show 4