edges, it would be difficult to
imagine how the Gulf weed should cross it, or get from one side of it
to the other.

The inference, therefore, would be, that as all the Gulf weed which is
seen about this stream is on its eastern declivity, the _locus_ of the
weed must be somewhere within or near the borders of the stream, and
to the east of the middle. And this idea is strengthened by the report
of Captain Scott, a most intelligent ship-master, who informs me that
he has seen the Gulf weed growing on the Bahama Banks.

DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.

(_From a Letter to the Secretary of the Navy, 1854, given in Mrs.
Corbin's Life of Maury._[14])

The U. S. brig "Dolphin," lieutenant commanding O. H. Berryman, was
employed last summer upon special services connected with this
office. . . . He was directed also to carry along a line of deep-sea
soundings from the shores of Newfoundland to those of Ireland. The
result is highly interesting upon the question of a submarine
telegraph across the Atlantic, and I therefore beg leave to make it
the subject of a special report.

This line of deep-sea sounding seems to be DECISIVE of the question as
to the practicability of a submarine telegraph between the two
continents _in so far as the bottom of the deep sea is concerned_.
From Newfoundland to Ireland the distance between the nearest points
is about 1600 miles, and the bottom of the sea between the two places
is a plateau which seems to have been placed there especially for the
purpose of holding the wires of the submarine telegraph, and of
keeping them out of harm's way. It is neither too deep nor too
shallow; yet it is so deep that the wires but once landed will remain
forever beyond the reach of the anchors of vessels, icebergs, and
drifts of any kind, and so shallow, that they may be readily lodged
upon the bottom. . . . . . .

A wire laid across from either of the above-named places on this side
to the north of the Grand Banks, will rest on that beautiful plateau
to which I have alluded, and where the waters of the sea appear to be
as quiet and as completely at rest as it is at the bottom of a
mill-pond. It is proper that the reasons should be stated for the
inference that there are no perceptible currents and no abrading
agents at work at the bottom of the sea upon this telegraphic plateau.
I derive this inference from the study of a physical fact, which I
little deemed, when I sought it, had any such bearings.

Lieuten