Year: 1873




scribed in the World Two thousand
five hundred and sixty-seven miles of
the new cable that Is soon to connect
Old England with the Dominion of
Canada Is now on board the Great Eas-
tern, at present anchored in the estuary
Of the Medway, where she will lay until
about the both of May This cable will
start from Germoe, on the north side of
Mounts bay, Cornwall. The bay is
especially adapted for such a purboso,
being sheltered from the heaviest seas,
protected as il is from twenty-five points
Of the compass, the remaining seven
covering an area in which no great run
of sea can be got up. The shore is also
suitable, forty fathoms of water being
reached in about four miles. The de-
scent into the thousand-fathom bottom
is also much less abrupt than on the
Irish coast. The cable will be landed
at Fresh-water cove in Halifax harbor,
on piece of land in the occupation of
the English war office, There will then
be laid a branch cable from Freshwater
cove to and around Montauk point,
Long Island, landing on Hog island.
and from thence to New York city by
land line. The line is to be put down
by the same company now owning what
is called the French line, and as they
have working arrangement with the
other lines, the public are not likely to
derive any immediate advantage in the
shape Of cheaper rates. The Halifax
and Hog island section and the shore
ends will be conveyed in threefvessels.
The Hibernia of 1000 tons, Edinburgh
Of 1900 tons and the La Plata of about
1,S0O tons and it is hoped that if moth
ing goes wrong the cable will all be
laid and in working order to this CITY
by the 20th of June. The new cable
differs somewhat from any of those hith-
erto laid, either across the Atlantic or
elsewhere. There are seven No. IS
gauge copper wires twisted in a spiral
aud weighing 300 pounds per nautical
mile, and these are covered with four
coats Of gutta-perch with thin layers of
Chatterton's compound, this amounting
to 400 pounds per knot. The diameter
Of each wire is about 0.48 inch, of the
strand Q. l46 inch, and Of the wire and
gutta-percha compound 0.464 inch.
This core is served with hemp, and the
hemp is again protected by ten wires
drawn from homogeneous iron, each
wire being swathed in fine yarns of ma
Mia hemp laid on spirally with a tarry
compound to preserve it. 50 far the
cable is not dissimilar to those of 1865
and 1866, and is almost identical with
that Of the French cable Of 1868 but it
is sensibly larger, and the difference is
owing to two servings Of jute' yarn
wound on in contrary directions and
covered with two coats of Latimer
Clarks preserative compound. The
cable weighs about 200 pounds per knot
more than the previous cables, but it is
even stronger in proportion and is cal
culated to last at least twice rs long
under the same conditions.


Lying and Treacherous Memories.


Few memories are entirely truthful.
We many Of us find them false mainly
to our own cost or inconvenience. We
are sure we put missing article where
we did not put it, that we read pas
sage in the middle of right-hand page
when it turns out to be at the top of
the left; the eye of memory has the
most distinct recollection, and yet it is
not true. The most disinterested wit
nesses at trial contradict one another
because each is sure of what he neither
saw nor heard exactly as he thinks he
saw or heard it. Nobody is willing to
attach any moral taint to these involun-
tary errors, though certain steadiness
Of observation, habitual holding self
in check, and putting positiveness to the
test, might have preserved us from it.
Again, certain ideas, certain forms of
expression, slide into the memory un-
awares, and pass current for original
thought, and betray people into invol-
untary plagiarism. We suspect that
great many persons assume to them
selves a faculty Of invention when they
are only cheated by their memory in
Producing itself as an original concep-
tlon, and performing its feats in dis
guise. For many suffer under the re-
verse deception, of which Charles Lamb
accuses himself when lamenting the
strange fatality through which every
thing he touched turned into lie re-
lating how he. once quoted two lines
from u translation Of Dante which Haz-
litt very greatly admired and quoted
in book as proof of the stupendous
power of that poet. But no such lines
we're to be found in the translation
searched for the purpose; whereupon
he adds, " must have dreamed them,
for | am quite sure did not forge them
knowingly" What misfortune" he
plaintively concludes, "to have lying
memory !" On the other hand, cor
rect memory is the most necessary Of all
aids to the liar, rs we are reminded by
hackneyed proverb; and it also
prompts to lying in unprincipled hands.
Wood tells a story Of Hoskyns, the
Winchester boy, who, having neglected
to write his verse exercise, glanced for
minute or two over the shoulder Of a
more diligent school fellow, aAd upon
! .a.... I =