In 1881 an American company was formed, under the guidance of the late Mr. Jay Gould, entitled The American Telegraph and Cable Company, with a view to partaking in the profits of transatlantic telegraphy by establishing another line of communication between the United States and Great Britain, and thence to the rest of Europe. This cable was also constructed and laid (in the course of that year) by Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who were part promoters of the enterprise, as well as another cable for the same system in the following year, 1882. This company's cables are leased by the Western Union Telegraph Company, which was practically Jay Gould's property, and remained so up to close on the time of his death, a few years ago. In 1883 the above system entered the "Pool"--the happy destination for which, maybe, it was originally launched into existence. A fresh competitor arrived in 1884 in the person of the Commercial Cable Company. Two cables were laid across the Atlantic for this company in the same year, its promoters wisely foreseeing that, in view of the continual chance of a breakdown, this was the only way in which they could safely attempt to compete with their more firmly established rivals. The "Commercial" Company was mainly promoted by two American millionaires, Mr. J. W. Mackay, the celebrated New York financier, and Mr. Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald; with them were associated Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who afterward became the contractors for the enterprise. These cables, like the Jay Gould lines, stretch from the extreme southwest point of Ireland (which is connected by special cable with England) to Nova Scotia, and thence to the United States, one of them direct to New York. The system is directly connected with that of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, thus affording ready communication with the Dominion. Neither the "Commercial" Company's system nor that of the Compagnie Française des Câbles Télégraphiques is at present in the "Atlantic Pool."