The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
"The progress of the end to the shore was very slow, in
consequence of the very stiff wind which blew at the time, but
at about three o'clock the end was safely brought on shore at
Knightstown, Valentia, by Mr. Bright and Mr. Canning, the chief
and second engineers, to whose exertions the success of the
undertaking is attributable, and the Knight of Kerry.[D] The
end was immediately laid in the trench which had been dug to
receive it, while a royal salute, making the neighboring rocks
and mountains reverberate, announced that the communication
between the Old and the New World had been completed."
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The spot chosen as the terminus of the Atlantic cable, with the
views around it--both on the water and on land--is thus described by a
correspondent:
"All who have visited Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, with one consent allow
it to be one of the most beautiful sheets of water they ever set eyes
upon. Its color is very peculiar--an inexpressible mingling of the pure
blue ocean with the deep evergreen woodlands and the serene blue sky.
Its extreme length is about eighty miles, its breadth about thirty
miles, opening boldly into the Atlantic on the northern side of the
island. At its south-western shore it branches into the Bay of Bull's
Arm, which is a quiet, safe, and beautiful harbor, about two miles in
breadth, and nine or ten in length, running in a direction north-west.
"The depth of water is sufficient for the largest vessels. The tide
rises seven or eight feet, and the bay terminates in a beautiful
sand-beach. The shore is clothed with dark green fir-trees, which, mixed
with birch and mountain-ash, present a pleasing contrast. The land rises
gradually from the water all around, so as to afford one of the most
agreeable town sites in the island. You ascend only about a quarter of a
mile from the water, and there are no longer trees, but wild grass like
an open prairie. Here are found at this season myriads of the upland
cranberries, upon which unnumbered ptarmigan, or the northern partridge,
feed.
"The raspberry, bake-apple berry, and the whortleberry are also common.
Numerous little lakes may be seen in the open, elevated ground, from
which flow rivulets, affording abundance of fine trout. After ascending
for about a mile and a half, you are then probably three hundred or four
hundred feet above the tide, and nothing can exceed the beauty of the
scene when, at one view, you behold the placid waters of both Trinity
and Placentia Bays--the latter sprinkled with clusters of verdant
islands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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