And now Field began to clear the way by consulting the highest scientific authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. Was it possible to carry a cable across the ocean? If laid, would it be able to convey messages? The first query related to mechanical difficulties only, such as the depth of the ocean, the nature of the ocean bed, the influence of currents and winds. The second referred to pure science and the conditions under which the electric fluid acts—Would the lightning flash from shore to shore across an intervening waste of sea? The answer to the first question was supplied by Maury, who pointed out that between Ireland and Newfoundland the bottom of the sea formed a plateau, or elevated table‐land, which, as he said, seemed to have been placed there especially for the purpose of supporting the wires of an electric telegraph, and protecting them from injury. Its slope, he said, was quite regular, gradually increasing from the shores of Newfoundland to the depth of from 1,500 to 2,000 fathoms as you approach the Irish coast. It was neither too deep nor too shallow: deep enough to protect the cable from danger by ships’ anchors, icebergs, and currents; shallow enough to secure that the wires should be readily lodged upon the bottom. From Professor Morse an equally satisfactory answer was obtained. He declared his faith in the undertaking as a practicable one: that it might, could, and would be achieved. The Company undertook to make a series of careful soundings to ascertain the exact nature of the ocean bottom over which the cable connecting Newfoundland with Ireland would have to be laid. Mr. Field applied for this purpose to the American Government, who immediately despatched the _Arctic_, under Lieutenant Berryman, on this useful and most necessary service. She sailed from New York on the 18th of July, 1856; and on the following day Mr. Field left in the steamship _Baltic_ for England, to organise the Atlantic Telegraph Company. The _Arctic_ proceeded to St. John’s, and thence went on her way across the deep, in three weeks reaching the coast of Ireland, and clearly demonstrating, as the result of her survey, the existence of a great plateau under the ocean, extending all the way from the New World to the Old. To make assurance doubly sure, Mr. Field solicited the British Admiralty “to make what further soundings might be necessary between Ireland and Newfoundland, and to verify those made by Lieutenant Berryman.” In response to this appeal the Admiralty sent out the _Cyclops_, under Lieutenant Dayman, a very capable officer, who executed his task with great zeal and success. He showed that the depth of the water on the so‐called telegraphic plateau—the elevated table‐land which Providence had raised between the two continents—nowhere exceeded 2,500 fathoms, or 15,000 feet. Such a depth is almost trivial compared with the enormous depths in other parts of the Atlantic, where