Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/342

316 584. "Whats the use" of deep-sea soundings?—" What is to be the use of these deep-sea soundings?" is a question that often occurs; and it is as difficult to be answered in categorical terms as Franklin's question, "What is the use of a new-born babe?" Every physical fact, every expression of nature, every feature of the earth, the work of any and all of those agents which make the face of the world what it is, and as we see it, is interesting and instructive. Until we get hold of a group of physical facts, we do not know what practical bearings they may have, though right-minded men know that they contain many precious jewels, which the experts of philosophy will not fail to bring-out, polished and bright, and beautifully adapted, sooner or later, to man's purposes. Already we are obtaining practical answers to this question as to the use of deep-sea soundings; for, as soon as they were announced to the public, they forthwith assumed a practical bearing in the minds of men with regard to the question of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic.

585. The telegraphic plateau.—There is, at the bottom of this sea, between Cape Race, in Newfoundland, and Cape Clear, in Ireland, a remarkable steppe, which is already known as the telegraphic plateau, and has already been made famous by the attempts to run a telegraphic cable across the ocean upon it. In August, 1858, a cable was laid upon it from Valencia in Ireland to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland, and but a few messages were passed through it, when it ceased to work. Whether messages can ever be successfully sent, in a commercial sense, through such a length of continuous submarine wire, is by no means certain; but that the wires of 1858 so soon ceased to pass any current at all was no doubt owing to the fact that the cable was constructed upon erroneous principles. Its projectors, in planning its construction, did not, unfortunately, avail themselves of the light which our deep-sea soundings had cast upon the bed of the ocean.

586. The first specimens of deep-sea soundings.—It was upon this plateau that Brooke's sounding apparatus brought up its first trophies from the bottom of the sea. These specimens the officers of the Dolphin judged to be clay; but they took the precaution to label them, carefully to preserve them, and, on their return to the United States, to send them to the proper bureau. They were divided; a part was sent for examination to Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, and a part to the late Professor