it was certainly practicable. He pointed out the route by which the wire could be safely conducted. He told him that between Newfoundland and Ireland the bottom of the sea is a plateau, neither too deep nor too shallow for the desired purpose. So deep that the wires once landed will remain forever beyond the reach of vessels' anchors, icebergs, and drifts of any kind, and so shallow, that the. wires may be readily lodged on the bottom. The depth of this plateau is quite regular, gradually increasing from the shores of Newfoundland, to the depth of from fifteen hundred to two thousand fathoms as you approach the other side.' He informed him, moreover, of the reasons he had for speaking with so much assurance. Lieutenant Berryman had made deep-sea soundings over the entire length of this plateau. This had been accomplished by means of the deep-sea sounding apparatus invented by Lieutenant Brooke, and by no other apparatus could the same sort of soundings have been made. By this apparatus it was ascertained that the bottom of the deep sea was as still as eternity, unmoved by storm, unfurrowed by tide

or wave.

Dr. Field has not felt called upon to acknowledge by a single word the undisputed supremacy in nautical physics, accorded by all the world to Mr. Maury. Perhaps he thought, and thought truly, that it was unnecessary. Possibly, as he seems not to have directed his attention to scientific matters much more than his brother Cyrus, he may not have heard of the Wind and Current Charts by which modern navigation is directed. He gives due credit to Lieutenant Brooke, when he says:- To make our knowledge of the sea complete, one thing more was wanting: a method not only of reaching the bottom, but of laying hold of it and bringing it up to the light of day. This was now to be supplied. It is to the inventive genius of a Lieutenant of the United States Navy, Mr. J. M. Brooke, that the world owes the means of finding out what is at the bottom of the sea.' He gives on the next page a very good descriptive drawing, from Maury's Physical Geography of the Sea, of the apparatus employed. We think he might gracefully

here have alluded to the service rendered to Science by Lieutenant Brooke, in the exploring expedition of which he had charge, to the North Pacific; though it is possible. he may not have been informed on the point. Of course it could not be expected that he should know, nor indeed would it have been appropriate in him to refer to the fact, if he did, that the same gentleman, (now holding the rank of captain, and no longer of the U. S. Navy), during the late war, was the inventor of a new and formidable species of gun, which, in the South at least, goes by his name. We think we have some right to complain that the author does not bring out more distinctly, what we take to be the fact, that but for his reliance upon the scientific opinion of Mr. Maury, Mr. Field would never have undertaken the enterprise he was considering; and that without the information given by the apparatus of Lieutenant Brooke, Mr. Maury could not have spoken as he did. Thus in the series of causes finally issuing in the laying of the Cable, the contribution by Virginia may fairly be regarded as indispensable. In this view, the space given to these two distinguished men, is scanty, and especially appears so, when in a later part of his volume, the author finds opportunity to give extra items of information about men of less note in England.

Lieutenant Berryman is noticed by Dr. Field in a hearty and appreciative manner. He pays to his memory what he intends to be a grateful compliment, however it may elsewhere be regarded. We will say nothing to disturb our author's convictions upon this subject, but this one wordHis native State is fully prepared to lay her own peculiar laurel upon any monument erected to the memory of her gallant son.

The other branch of the scientific inquiry was addressed to Prof. Morse. 'Is it possible to telegraph over a distance so great as that from Europe to America?' Prof. Morse replied that he would come down to New York and see Mr. Field on the subject. In conversation, the Professor declared his entire faith in the undertaking as a practicable thing; and one that might, could and would be achieved.'

Thus the first difficulty, the scientific, was to a great degree removed, by the unhesitating opinion of the most competent authority. Nor did it depend exclusively upon authority. There was valuable, though not sufficient, experience to refer to. Five or six, perhaps more, submarine telegraphs had been laid and were successful. One between Dover and Calais, 25 miles; another between Holyhead and Dublin, 70 miles, in water of 70 fathoms; and still another, from Dover to Ostend, 70 miles. An article by an English writer, from which we have taken the above figures, gives a table of as many as twelve, one of them 150 miles long, but as no dates are given, we cannot affirm that they were completed, at the time of the inception of the Atlantic Telegraph. Our author speaks of one having been laid of the length of 300 miles, but does not name it. We do not know what line this can be unless that from Varna to Balaklava, and that if we are not mistaken was not laid as early as 1854.

So much for the scientific problem. The mechanical problem was of more difficult solution. This was two-fold in its nature: the construction of the Cable, and the laying of it down. Here again, it is true, the results of actual experiment might be referred to, as far as experiment had gone. But how insignificant were all previous experiments compared with the task in hand! To gain a just idea of what had to be attempted, we should look at what was actually done. The whole length of the Cable, including the shore-end, is two thousand four hundred and forty nautical miles, weighing more than four thousand tons, or a ton and three quarters to the mile. If coiled in one cir.cle, it would make a pile fifty-eight feet wide and sixty feet high. It was ascertained by an exact computation made by some curious persons that 'if all the wires of copper and of iron with the layers that made up the case and the outer covering, and the strands of yarn that were twisted into this one knotted sea-cable, were placed end to end, the whole length would reach from the earth to the moon.' Dimensions such as these, invest even a rope of twisted hemp and wire with something like sublimity; and

we confess that we could not, without a feeling akin to awe, grasp one end of a cord that connects two Hemispheres.

There was but one ship in the world that could dare to assume this mighty burden. The Great Eastern, an eighth of a mile in length, too capacious to be laden at any of the world's marts, and now lying in idle immensity at her wharf, at last found her freight in the Atlantic Cable. With a freight of fourteen thousand tons, besides engines, rigging, &c., weighing nearly as much more, and drawing more than thirty-two feet of water, she set her head towards the Western World. For fifteen days from shore to shore, at a steady average of a little less than 120 miles a day, she paid out the Cable, at the rate of five and a half miles an hour, in water sometimes more than two miles deep. This was the second trip of the Great Eastern. On the first, she had lost the Cable after having sailed 1,200 miles. Three attempts by a squadron of four vessels, two British and two American, had been previously made, of which the first two were failures, the third succeeded in landing the Cable in 1858, but the telegraphic communication was never perfect, and very soon, as we have stated, ceased entirely. We may mention that in this successful attempt, the two vessels, the Niagara and the Agamemnon began the laying of the Cable in mid-ocean, and sailing west and east respectively, simultaneously laid the Cable to the shores of Newfoundland and Ireland. Thus the bones of at least three other Atlantic Cables' lie stretched in different lengths along the same track.

During the course of these several expeditions, very important improvements were made in the construction of the Cable, especially in the machinery for paying out, and in the apparatus for testing the integrity of the conducting wire. We have not been able to sum up from Dr. Field's book the total cost of the enterprise, including the various failures; he states, however, that the contract price for the last expedition, was two and a half millions of dollars, which was the estimate for the actual cost. Allowing that the four other expeditions cost as much, we would have a

total of twelve and a half millions, excluding the operations in the island of Newfoundland.

From these facts we may roughly estimate the difficulties which we have called mechanical, that stood before the projectors of the enterprise. Our author says truly and impressively well was it that they who undertook the work, did not then fully realize its magnitude, or they might have shrunk from the attempt. Well was it for them that the veil was not lifted which shut from their eyes the long delay, the immense toil, and the heavy burdens of many wearisome years. Such a prospect might have chilled the most sanguine spirit.'

In arranging in the inverse order of their magnitude the difficulties standing in the way of the scheme of the Atlantic Telegraph, we put last, that of administration, meaning thereby the conducting of the operation from its inception to its success. This includes securing the confidence of a sufficient number of collaborators, raising the necessary funds, organizing the company, managing its affairs, vivifying its movements, and sustaining it under disasters. To secure unity and efficiency, this work must be done by one man, and yet the burden seems too great for one man to bear. He who is able to meet the responsibility of such a position must have a strong body, a clear and cool head, a resolute will, a bold and sanguine temper, habits of unremitting industry and exact system, a talent for organization, power of influence and command, quick discrimination of character, and prepossessing manners. Mr. Field's great success as a merchant would argue that he possessed at least many of these qualifications; and his management of this great operation leaves us no room for doubt. At first he stood almost alone, and never had any aid other than that which he created for himself by his influence over men of importance, and throughout almost the whole period he was regarded as the controlling manager. This was his function and this is the credit that is fairly his. His science as we have seen, he took from others, and his brother does not represent him as having had anything to do personally with the mechanical improvements, without which,