Part 3 (1/2)
When a lands the mountains, comes down to the coast, and stands for the first ti of awe and wonder, not unled with terror There it lies, a level surface, with nothing that lifts up its head like a peak of his native hills And yet it is so vast, stretching away to the horizon, and all over the sides of the round world; with its tides and currents that sweep from the equator to the pole; with its unknown depths and its ceaseless hest emblem of majesty and of power--a not unworthy symbol of God himself
In proportion to its ue dread always surrounds the unknown And what so unknown as the deep, unfathomable sea? For thousands of years the sails of shi+ps, like winged birds, have ski in nature beyond alike e and his power:
Man marks the earth with ruin, His control stops with the shore
And the little that has been known of the ocean has been chiefly of its surface, of the winds that blow over it, and the waves that are lifted up on high We knew somewhat of its tides and currents as observed in different parts of the earth We saw off our coast the great Gulf Streahty and ions, poured its warh the cold waters of the North Atlantic; and sweeping round, sent the airs of a softer cliers told us of the trade-winds that blew across the Pacific, and of terrible monsoons in China and Indian seas
But all that did not reveal as going on a hundred fathoms below the surface These old sailors hadtheir breath, plunged to the depth of a few hundred feet; but they cahtful -bell was let down over sunken wrecks, but the divers caeether on the deep sea floor Was the bottom of the sea all like this? Was it a vast realm of death, the sepulchre of the world? Noof the caves of ocean, but no eye of science had yet penetrated those awful depths, which the storms never reach
It is indeed marvellous how little was known, up to a very recent date, of the true character of the ocean Navigators had often tried to find out how deep it was When lying becal down a long line, weighted with a cannon-ball, to see if they could touch bottom But the results were very uncertain Sometimes the line ran out for , or ayed hither and thither by hty under-currents, could not be known
But this true character of the ocean it was necessary to deterulf of the Atlantic What was there on the botto place? Was that ocean-bed a wide level plain, or had it been heaved up by volcanic forces into a hundred e and precipice between? Such was the character of a part of the basin of the ocean Here and there, all over the globe, are islands, like the Peak of Teneriffe, thrown up in so of the crust of our planet, that shoot up in tremendous cliffs from the sea Who shall say that the same cliffs do not shoot down below the waves a thousand fathoht there not be such islands, which did not show their heads above the surface, lying in the track between Europe and Aes, over which the cable would have to be stretched, and where hanging fro with the tide, till at last it snapped and fell into the abyss below?
Such at least were possible dangers to be encountered; and it was not safe to advance a step till the basin of the North Atlantic was explored
The progress of invention, so rapid on land, at length found a way of penetrating the sea, and even of turning up its botto like mathe nautical men as Massey's Indicator, the method of which is very clearly explained in an article which appeared in one of the New York papers, (The Tiraph:
”The old system is with a small line, ht of thirty or fifty pounds, the depth being told by the length of line run out
This is, of course, the ests itself, and has been in use froiven directions for its use, avoiding soe and other causes Yet its success in immense ocean depths is probleative by many of the first scientific authorities at home and abroad In the mechanical improvements of the last half-century substitutes for this sian to be devised It was proposed to ascertain the depth by the amount of pressure, or by explosions under water, with other equally iularity of the h the water Experiularity, when unaffected by other causes, could be relied on with perfect accuracy, and that an arrangeister its revolutions with mathematical precision
Very soon it ca So perfect was their precision, that they were even introduced in scientific surveys Base lines, where the nicest accuracy is required, were run with thehest authority of the Royal Navy for believing that they never failed At this point it was proposed to apply theh the water Massey's apparatus proraphy left unsolved by the olddepth with a simple line and sinker, and this more especially as some causes of error, considerable on the surface, disappear in the still water below”
Tothe bottoht of day This was now to be supplied
[Illustration: BROOKE'S DEEP SEA SOUNDING APPARATUS
A shows the instru only of a cannon-ball, pierced with an iron rod, and held in its place by slings As the ball goes doiftly, it drives the rod into the botto at the end catches the ooze in its iron lips The sas loosen, the ball drops off, and the naked rod, C, with its ”bite” is drawn up to the surface]
It is to the inventive genius of a lieutenant of the United States navy, Mr J M Brooke, that the world owes theout what is at the bottom of the sea This is by a very siht, used to sink theline, _is detached as soon as it strikes bottohtly and quickly to the surface without danger of breaking Below the weight, and driven by it into the ooze, is a rod, in which is an open valve, that now closes with a spring, by which it catches a cupful of the soil, which is thus brought up to the surface, to be placed under the microscope, and be subjected to the sharp eye of science With this simple instrument the skilful sea over it With a long line he dives to the very lowest depths, while the clasp at the end of it is like the tip of the elephant's trunk, serving as a delicate finger hich he picks up sand and shells that lie strewn on the floor of the deep What important conclusions are derived from this inspection of the bottom of the sea, is well stated by Lieutenant Maury in the letter already quoted
In happy concurrence with this, as an additional preparation, a partial survey of the Atlantic had been un, in 1853 Lieutenant Berry deep-sea soundings to that part of the Atlantic lying between Newfoundland and Ireland, with resultsand satisfactory But to remove all doubt it seemed desirable to have a fresh survey To obtain this, Mr Field went to Washi+ngton and applied to the Government in behalf of the Coranted, and the Arctic, under coned to this service He sailed frohteenth of July, 1856, and the very next day Mr
Field left on the Baltic for England, to organize the Atlantic Telegraph Company The Arctic proceeded to St John's, and thence with a clear eye and a steady hand, this true sailor went ”sounding on his dim and perilous way” across the deep In about three weeks hethe great circle arc, which the telegraph was to follow as the nearest path from the old world to the new The result fully confirreat plateau underneath the ocean, extending all the way from one hemisphere to the other
I cannot take leave of the naallant officer, who rendered such services to science and to his country, without a word of tribute to his rave He died in the navy of his country, worn out by his devotion to her service When the great civil war broke out, he was placed in a position e heart, who loved at once his country and the state in which he was born He was a Southerner, a native of Winchester, Va, and was assigned to duty in the South At the first attack on Southern forts and arsenals, he was in command of the Wyandotte, in the harbor of Pensacola, in Florida His officers, ere nearly all Southerners, were in secret sympathy with the rebellion All the influences around hiht have seduced a weaker man from his loyalty But, to his honor, he never hesitated for awhoainst surprise and treachery It was the testimony of Lieutenant Slemmer, then in command of Fort Pickens, that but for the ceaseless exertions of Lieutenant Berryman not only the shi+p but the fort would have been lost But this service to his country cost hiht on a brain fever, of which he died His wife, also a native of Winchester, when the war ca that ”she would not live under any other flag than that under which her husband had lived and died”
It was to the honor of the As But after this second voyage of exploration, Mr
Field applied to the British Adht be necessary between Ireland and Newfoundland, and to verify those made by Lieutenant Berryman” It was in response to this application that the Govern year a vessel to make still another survey of the same ocean-path This was the steamer Cyclops, which was placed under Lieutenant Commander Joseph Dayman, of the British navy, an officer who had been with Captain Sir Jas in the South Atlantic in 1840, where he attained a depth of twenty-six hundred and sixty-seven fathoence and zeal, was admirably fitted for the work To speak now of this _third_ survey, is anticipating in time But it will serve the purpose of unity and clearness in the narrative, to include all these deep-sea soundings in one chapter He was directed to proceed to the harbor of Valentia in Ireland, and thence to follow, as nearly as possible, along the arc of a great circle to Newfoundland ”The soundings for the first fewas you draw off shore”
These orders were thoroughly executed Every pains was taken to make the infor was to be taken, the shi+p was hove to, and the bow kept as nearly as possible in the saht descend perpendicularly This was repeated every few ot far out into the Atlantic, where the general equality of the depths rendered it necessary to cast the line only every twenty or thirty miles Thus the survey was reatest value in deterraphy of the sea
The conclusions of Coeneral those of Lieutenant Berry the charts prepared by the te observe soree as to the general character of the botto this latitude--that it is a vast plain, like the steppes of Siberia Yet on the chart of Dayman the floor of the sea seems _not such a dead level_ as on that of Berry to a difference of route, as Dayman passed a little to the north of the track of Berryman) There are more unequal depths, which in the small space of a chart, appear like hills and valleys Yet e consider the wide distances passed over, these inequalities seereater than the undulations on our Western prairies ”This space,” says Dayraphic plateau, and although byfrom fourteen hundred and fifty to twenty-four hundred fathoms, these are comparatively small inequalities in its surface, and present no new difficulty to the project of laying the cable across the ocean Their importance vanishes when the extent of the space over which they are distributed (thirty degrees of longitude) is considered”