NEW LINE OP SOUNDINGS.
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furnished with rocky spurs projecting into the sea at its entrance, or having a bar
across its mouth upon which the depth of water is less than in the channel of
the fiord itself, constitutes no protection to a telegraphic cable submerged along
it, and that there is but one set of conditions which can be accepted as affording
unquestionable security, namely, that furnished by a channel sufficiently deep
to prevent the possibility of the largest bergs grounding under any circumstances
whatever, and extending from deep water out at sea to the extreme verge of the
terminus at which it is intended to land the cable. Instead of the grounding of
bergs at a given distance from a coast-line affording this security, it proves the
liability to the entrance of these masses wheresoever they can find a channel
and atmospheric and tidal influences come into operation. Some channels are
no doubt less liable than others to the entry of bergs, either on account of
their dhection with regard to prevaiUng winds and currents or their tortuousness ;
but the first obstacle must necessarily be regarded as uncertain in its results, whilst
the rock or shore formation which invariably accompanies the second renders
great fluctuations in the depths inevitable. In the case of channels through
which the discharge of water from the land is so great as to oppose the entry of
bergs, it is almost needless to say the action of boulders and abrading surfaces
would only alter the kind of danger, without diminishing it.
On reference to the Map, it will be seen that, up to the period of our departure
from Julianshaab, one line of soundings, divided into three sections with reference
to the countries visited, has been completed, namely, from the Faroe
Islands to Iceland, from Iceland to the east coast of Greenland, and from the
south-western portion of Greenland to Hamilton’s Inlet in Labrador, the last
section having been re-traversed on the return voyage of the ‘ Bulldog.’ Since
our last approach to Greenland in the vicinity of Christian Sound, a fresh line
has been entered on, stretching direct from Cape Farewell to Eockall. Since
the 8th instant, four soundings have been taken, two of which present most
interesting results, although in one of these only was material brought up from
the bottom in sufficient quantity to indicate more than the fact of its having been
reached by the sounding-machine.
In the first of these four soundings, which was taken in lat. 69° 48' N ,
long. 37° W., the depth (1620 fathoms) is remarkable as showing a decrease
of 336 fathoms in comparison with that of a sounding taken during the outward
SUBMERGED LAND IN THE NORTH-ATLANTIC. 63
voyage from Iceland to the east coast of Greenland, in nearly the same meridian,
but in la t 61° 57' N. The second sounding, in lat. 59° 47' N., long. 32° 43' W.,
indicated a depth of 1168 fathoms, or a still greater decrease as compared with
the depth of a sounding taken three degrees to the northward, the difference
amounting to 404 fathoms. The third sounding, taken in lat. 59° 39' N.,
long. 29° 38' W., gave a depth of 748 fathoms only, or, as compared with a
point four degrees to the northward and nearly in the same meridian of longitude,
a decrease of 338 fathoms,—these three soundings jointly indicating that
along a tract extending from the 29th to the 37th degree of west longitude, in
the two lines separated by a mean interval of about three degrees of latitude,
the more southerly line shows a mean decrease in depth of 360 fathoms.
The discovery of a plateau partially raised above the surrounding level of the
sea-bed, when considered by itseJf, might naturally be regarded as an isolated fact
of little import, and not necessarily dependent on any extraordinary convulsions
of the earth’s surface; but it assumes a very different aspect when viewed in
connexion with historic records, which declare that dry land, or, at all events,
land so partially submerged as to be a source of danger to navigators, actually
existed several centuries ago in the locality referred t o ; and hence it would
almost countenance the supposition that, at a still more remote period, this tract
may have constituted one of the successive stepping-stones by which Northwestern
Europe and the North American continent were united.
Although it is impossible to say how far the volcanic action, of which Iceland
now constitutes the centre, may have extended in a southerly direction duilng
past ages, when we take into consideration the distances to which such agencies
have actually been known to extend, the occurrence mthin little more than half
a century of volcanic action and land-subsidence considerably to the southward
of Iceland, the line of this action as showm by the geological formation of Iceland
itself, and the outlying centres of the recent convulsions alluded to, and, lastly,
the drift of volcanic particles in a southerly and south-westerly dii-ection, it seems
far from improbable that the subsidence of the tract under notice may have
resulted from similar agencies.
In some of the old charts, a dangerous reef or shoal, frequently refen-ed to by
the navigators of those days as the “ sunlten land of Buss,” is laid down in
lat. 57° 30' N., long. 29° 50' W. In a finely executed French chart, dated