Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/45

Rh but a pagan or a heathen people in the countries to which the Pacific gives drainage are like the sands upon its shores for multitude. The Atlantic is the most stormy sea in the world, the Pacific the most tranquil.

55. The Telegraphic Plateau.—Among the many valuable discoveries to which these researches touching the physics of the sea have led, none perhaps is more interesting than the Telegraphic Plateau of the Atlantic, and the fact that the bottom of the deep sea is lined with its own dead, whose microscopic remains are protected from the abrading action of its currents and the violence of its waves by cushions of still water.

56. New routes for an Atlantic Telegraph.—The idea of a telegraph from England or Ireland along this plateau to America, seems after the splendid failure of 1858 to have been abandoned, chiefly however on account of the electrical difficulties which stand in the way of so long a circuit. Other routes with shorter circuits are now proposed: these are engaging the attention of enlightened governments in Europe, and of enterprising men on both sides of the Atlantic.

57. The Greenland route.—A line via Iceland and Greenland to Labrador, and thence overland to Canada and the United States, is attracting attention in England. The Admiralty have despatched Captain McClintock in the "Fox," of Arctic renown, to run a line of deep-sea soundings along this route.

58. The French route.—Another line from France, via the Western Islands to St. Pierre Miquelon, a French fishing-station off Newfoundland, and thence to the United States, is attracting the attention of the French people. Their emperor has given his sanction with the most liberal encouragement.

59. Their length of circuit.—The longest reach by the Greenland route may require a circuit not exceeding 400 or 500 miles in length. The greatest distance between the relay batteries of the French line will be a little over a thousand. These distances, with wires properly insulated, are held to be within effective telegraphic reach.

60. Faulty cables.—One of the chief physical difficulties which seem now to stand in the way of these lines lies with the "cables." It so happens that all deep-sea lines have at the present writing ceased to work. The two Malta lines in the Mediterranean are out of order; so also are the Red Sea lines: no messages have passed between Kurrachee and Aden for some