Ocean—Currents and their Causes—The Great Gulf Stream—Its Characteristics—A Triumph of Science—The Tides—The Highest Known Tides and Waves—Whirlpools—The Maelström—A Norwegian Description—Edgar Allan Poe and his Story—Rescued from the Vortex—The “Souffleur” at the Mauritius—The Colour of the Sea—Its Causes—The Phosphorescence of the Ocean—Fields of Silver—Principally Caused by Animal Life CHAPTER IX. DAVY JONES’S LOCKER—SUBMARINE CABLES. The First Channel Cable—Now‐a‐days 50,000 Miles of Submarine 98 Wire—A Noble New Englander—The First Idea of the Atlantic Cable—Its Practicability admitted—Maury’s Notes on the Atlantic Bottom—Deep Sea Soundings—Ooze formed of Myriads of Shells—English Co‐operation with Field—The First Cable of 1857—Paying Out—2,000 Fathoms Down—The Cable Parted—Bitter Disappointment—The Cable Laid and Working—Another Failure—The Employment of the _Great Eastern_—Stowing Away the Great Wire Rope—Departure—Another Accident—A Traitor on Board—Cable Fished up from the Bottom—Failure—Inauguration of the 1866 Expedition—Prayer for Success—A _Lucky_ Friday—Splicing to the Shore Cable—The Start—Each Day’s Run—Approaching Trinity Bay—Success at Last—The Old and the New World bound together CHAPTER X. THE OCEAN AND ITS LIVING WONDERS. Perfection in Nature’s smallest Works—A Word on Scientific 111 Classification—Protozoa—Blind Life—Rhizopoda—Foraminifera—A Robbery Traced by Science—Microscopic Workers—Paris Chalk—Infusoria—The “Sixth Sense of Man”—Fathers of Nations—Milne‐Edwards—Submarine Explorations—The Salt‐water Aquarium—The Compensating Balance required—Brighton and Sydenham—Practical Uses of the Aquarium—Medusæ: their Beauty—A Poet’s Description—Their General Characteristics—Battalions of “Jelly‐fish”—Polyps—A Floating Colony—A Marvellous Organism—The Graceful Agalma—Swimming Apparatus—Natural Fishing Lines—The “Portuguese Man‐of‐War”—Stinging Powers of the Physalia—An Enemy to the Cuttle‐fish CHAPTER XI. THE OCEAN AND ITS LIVING WONDERS (_continued_). The Madrepores—Brain, Mushroom, and Plantain Coral—The Beautiful 122 Sea‐anemones; their Organisation and Habits; their Insatiable Voracity—The Gorgons—Echinodermata—The Star‐fish—Sea Urchins—Wonderful Shell and Spines—An Urchin’s Prayer—The Sea Cucumber—The Trepang, or Holothuria—Trepang Fishing—Dumont d’Urville’s Description—The Commerce in this Edible—The Molluscs—The Teredo, or Ship‐worm—Their Ravages on the Holland Coast—The Retiring Razor‐fish—The Edible Mussel—History of their Cultivation in France—The Bouchots—Occasional Danger of Eating Mussels—The Prince of Bivalves—The Oyster and its Organisation—Difference in Size—American Oysters—High Priced in some Cities—Quantity Consumed in London—Courteous Exchange—Roman Estimation of them—The “Breedy Creatures” brought from Britain—Vitellius and his Hundred Dozen—A Sell: Poor Tyacke—The First Man who Ate an Oyster—The Fisheries—Destructive Dredging—Lake Fusaro and the Oyster Parks—Scientific Cultivation