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378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
61
This
submarine
mountain
was
then
regarded
as
the
chief
point
of
danger
in
the
whole
bed
of
the
Atlantic,
and
as
the
principal
source
of
anxiety
in
laying
a
cable
across
the
ocean.
Yet,
after
all,
the
ascent
or
descent
of
less
than
a
mile
and
a
half
in
ten
miles,
is
not
an
impassable
grade.
More
recent
soundings
reduce
this
still
farther.
Captain
Hoskins,
of
the
Royal
Navy,
afterwards
made
a
more
careful
survey
of
this
precipitous
sea
bottom,
and
with
results
much
more
favorable.
The
side
of
the
mountain,
it
is
now
said,
is
not
very
much
steeper
than
Holborn
Hill
in
London,
or
Murray
Hill
in
New
York.[B]
But
the
best
answer
to
fears
on
this
point,
is
the
fact
that
in
1857,
1858,
and
1865,
the
cable
passed
over
it
without
difficulty.
In
1857
the
Niagara
was
a
hundred
miles
farther
to
sea,
when
the
cable
broke.
In
1865
the
strain
was
not
increased
more
than
a
hundred
pounds.
In
the
final
expedition,
that
of
1866,
this
declivity
was
passed
over
without
difficulty
or
danger.
Next
to
the
depth
of
the
ocean,
it
was
important
to
ascertain
the
nature
of
its
bottom.
What
was
it--a
vast
bed
of
rock,
the
iron-bound
crust
of
the
globe,
hardened
by
internal
fires,
and
which,
bending
as
a
vault
over
the
still
glowing
centre
of
the
earth,
bore
up
on
its
mighty
arches
the
weight
of
all
the
oceans?
or
was
it
mere
sand
like
the
sea-shore?
or
ooze
as
soft
as
that
of
a
mill-pond?
The
pressure
of
a
column
of
water
two
miles
high
would
be
equal
to
that
of
four
hundred
atmospheres.
Would
not
this
weight
alone
be
enough
to
crush
any
substance
that
could
reach
that
tremendous
depth?
These
were
questions
which
remained
to
be
answered,
but
on
which
depended
the
possibility
of
laying
a
cable
at
the
bottom
of
the
Atlantic.
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