THE PACIFIC TELEGRAPH CABLE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4226, 6 October 1874, Page 3

THE PACIFIC TELEGRAPH CABLE.

(From the Ilaioaiian Commercial Gazette.) The Academy of Sciences of San Francisco, at one of its late meetings discussed the subject of a Pacific Cable. Professor Davidson, the President of the Society, laid before it a report, accompanied with charts showing the general character of the ocean bed ; and though, in the absence of a full report of the northern route, now being surveyed by the Tuscarora, the report did not express decided preference for either route, still it held there are no obstacles to the cable being laid via Honolulu and the Bonin Islands. He said that it had been generally understood that the grade off San Diego and Honolulu is very steep, but, in fact, it exceeds one foot in twenty-six. No greater impediment to cable laying is encountered from Honolulu to the Bonin Islands, where there is the greatest depth of the route, 3202 fathoms, nor thence to Japan. In sounding to the Bonin Islands several submarine mountains were discovered, and the lead came up in a battered state, as if it had struck rock. The greatest depth from the Bonin Islands to Japan is 1400 fathoms. The total distances along the route are : Jfrom San Diego to Honolulu,

2240 miles ; from Honolulu to the Bonin Islands, 3273 miles, and from the Bonin Islands to Japan, 480 miles, being 5993 nautical miles, or 0950 statute miles. In this estimate of distance no allowance is made for slack of the cable, which would increase the length of the route to some extent. Professor Davidson's report gives many particulars in regard to volume and temperature of the water to be encountered, together with the formation of the bed, but all these circumstances indicate no obstacle to the consummation of the enterprise. It is considered from the minute particulars already obtained, that there are no nwre real difficulties in the way of the successful laying of a Pacific cable than those met and overcome in the Atlantic, except, of course, the length of span. At any rate, the outlook is so promising that there is every hope that work will soon be commenced on the new route, and that the girdling of the globe will be completed at any early day.