In the month of April, 1860, the Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company sent out Captain Kell and Mr. Varley to Newfoundland to endeavour to recover some portion of the Cable; their efforts showed that the survey which had been taken must have been very insufficient, and the ground was much worse than was expected. They recovered five miles of the Cable, and ascertained two facts, namely, that the gutta percha was in no degree deteriorated, and that the electrical condition of the core had been improved by three years’ submersion. In 1862 several attempts were also made to recover some of the Cable from the Irish side, but with no practical advantage; and in consequence of violent storms the attempt was abandoned. The great Civil War in America stimulated capitalists to renew the attempt; the public mind became alive to the importance of the project, and to the increased facilities which promised a successful issue. Mr. Field, who compassed land and sea incessantly, pressed his friends on both sides of the Atlantic for aid, and agitated the question in London and New York. On the 20th of December, 1862, the Atlantic Company issued its prospectus, setting forth the valuable privileges it had acquired--amongst others, the exclusive right to land telegraph wires on the Atlantic coast of Labrador, Newfoundland, Prince Edward’s Island, and the State of Maine--and invited public subscriptions. The firm of Glass, Elliot, & Co., sent in tenders to provide a Cable at a cost of £700,000; a sum of £137,000, being 20 per cent. upon the capital of the Company, to be paid to them in old unguaranteed shares of the Company, provided they were successful. On the 4th of March, 1863, a large number of the leading merchants in New York assembled in the Chamber of Commerce in that city, for the purpose of hearing some new and interesting facts relative to the Atlantic Telegraph enterprise. The many advantages which would arise to America were apparent, and, among others, was the improvement of the agricultural position of the country by extending to it the facilities, already enjoyed by England and France, of commanding the foreign grain markets; as well as the avoidance of misunderstandings between America and other countries.[2]