prise is crowned with success, and that success manifest, by the actual use the government is invited to make of it.

It remains to be shown that the expense of the undertaking is commensurate with its advantages in practice.

All the memorialists ask, after the line is completed and in working order, is a donation of two millions of acres of land along the line, or in some other territories of the United States not interfering with the grants that may have been made, or may hereafter be made for railroad purposes. This is a small donation, compared with the liberal grants which have been made for railroads and other improvements of a less general character, and less likely to affect the wealth and progress of the whole country. Neither is it asked that the lands granted shall be in a continuous line, only benefiting the grantees. The improvements on the line will enhance the value of the adjacent lands, cause their settlement, and thus bring them, at an early period, into market. The telegraph will be the forerunner of civilization and power, and increase the revenue of the government, from customs and divers other sources.

But there is yet another most important consideration. The memorialists do not ask that the government shall grant them lands without receiving an equivalent. They bind themselves, in perpetuity, to transmit monthly, free of charge, and prior to all other business, eight thousand words for the sole use of the government, and agree to work the line, day and night, without interruption. This the Committee consider the most valuable feature in the whole proposition. At the rate of charges proposed by the memorialists for so large a distance, and worked at so great an outlay of labor and capital, it would be equal to the payment of $100,000 per annum; but the actual saving to government, in expresses, messengers, &c., would amount to much more, and far exceed the interest on the value of the donated lands. Viewed in this light, the grant of lands from the government would, in fact, be nothing else but a perpetual lease of them, at the yearly rent of $10,000 and upwards; and not in the nature of a gift, but of a profitable investment.

Considering, then, that the memorialists assume the whole risk and responsibility of the enterprise, and that the government is only called upon, at its successful completion, to make a moderate grant of land for the use of it, in all time to come, in the nature of rent, their proposition appears eminently just and reasonable on the face of it, and perfectly safe to the go

vernment.

Your Committee beg leave to report the following bill :

A BILL AUTHORIZING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LINE OF TELEGRAPH FROM THE MISSOURI OR MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Hiram O. Alden and James Eddy, their successors, associates and assigns, are hereby authorized and empowered to construct at their own expense, a line of telegraph from such point on the Mississippi or Missouri River as they may hereafter select, through the public lands belonging to, and under the jurisdiction of the United States, over which lands the right of way for that purpose is hereby granted, to San Francisco, in California, or some other point on the Pacific coast, in as direct a line as practicable, with the liberty to construct also diverging lines to and through the public lands in the States and Territories lying both north and south of said direct or main line, as is hereinafter set forth.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That said line of telegraph shall be constructed of durable materials, with at least two independent conductors thoroughly insulated, and securely placed under the surface of the earth, rock, or water, with testing tubes every five miles, and working stations at distances averaging not more than one hundred miles, to secure the through working of the same, and for its repair and protection. Said working stations are to be supplied with all the requisite telegraph apparatus, instruments, operators and men, necessary to its efficacy and reliability, and the same shall be completed and put in operation within two years from the passage of this bill, and such State legislation as may be necessary to authorize its construction in the States through which it may pass. And said line of telegraph, when so completed, shall thereafter be kept in operation by night as well as by day.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there shall be reserved and granted to the General Government forever, the free and prior use of said line of telegraph, for the transmission of all official despatches and communications between said government and its officers: Provided, however, That said free despatches and communications shall not exceed a monthly aggre gate of more than eight thousand words; but still reserving to the government the further prior use, to any extent within the capacity of said line, by paying the same tolls or charges paid by individuals for like services, and no more.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That for the transmission of all private despatches and communication over said main line,

between the Mississippi and the Pacific, the tolls or charges shall, in no case, exceed ten dollars for each message of ten words or less, exclusive of date, address and signature; and not exceeding seventy-five cents for each word added thereto.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That said Alden and Eddy, their associates and assigns, shall, at their own expense, keep said line of telegraph in working order, and at their own cost operate the same, transmitting said government despatches and communications, at all times, when said line shall be in working condition, as requested by the officers or authorized agents of said government; and if they shall, at any time, unreasonably refuse so to do, or shall neglect, for the space of six successive months, to operate said line-unless prevented from so doing by some unforeseen disaster or some unavoidable calamity, arising from the sickness of operators or from Indian hostility and depredation said line of telegraph, with all its appurtenances, shall be forfeited to, and become the property of the United States.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That upon the completion of said line of telegraph, as aforesaid, and so soon as the same shall be put in successful operation, and the free use thereof, as herein before provided, tendered to the government of the United States, then shall be issued to said Alden and Eddy, their heirs or assigns, in exchange and payment for the free and prior use of said line in perpetuity, as aforesaid, land warrants for two millions acres of land, which they are hereby authorized to select and locate as follows: from and after said completion they shall have the right to select from any of the public lands along and near said line of telegraph, not before sold or appropriated, any quantity, not less than a section nor more than a township in one body. If more than a township shall be selected in the same locality, alternate townships only shall be taken. Where unsurveyed lands shall have been selected, the President of the United States shall cause the same to be surveyed; and if, after two years from the completion, as aforesaid, said lands shall not have been surveyed, it shall be optional with said Alden and Eddy, their heirs or assigns, and they shall have the right to relocate the like quantities of land in any Territory where they have been surveyed, and shall then be open to private entry or sale. And as fast as selections and locations of said lands shall thus be made, the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby authorized and required to issue patents to said Alden and Eddy, their heirs or assigns, on application therefor: Provided, That in the event a railroad to the Pacific Ocean shall be located on or near said line of telegraph, the grant of land contemplated in this section shall be so located as not to interfere with any grant Congress may make in aid of the construction of said railroad.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That all voluntary or intentional injuries to said line of telegraph, or to any property thereto belonging, shall be deemed, and are hereby declared to be wilful and malicious trespasses, and shall be punished as such, and all laws of the United States now in force in any Territory thereof, or which may hereafter be enacted for the better security and protection of property, and applicable to such of fences, shall be, and they hereby are extended, for the protection of said line of telegraph, into and over all the unorganized territory belonging to, and under the jurisdiction of the United States, through which the same may be constructed; and all legal process and proceedings for the detection and punishment of the aforesaid offences shall be within the jurisdiction of the courts, and shall be issued and executed by the proper law officers in the adjoining States and organized Territories."

Art. II.-ATLANTIC OCEAN TELEGRAPH.

THE OCEAN SOUNDED-BOTTOM FOUND FROM AMERICA TO EUROPE LIEUT. MAURY-THE OCEAN BASIN-THE WATER QUIET ON THE BOTTOMTELEGRAPH ACROSS THE OCEAN PRACTICABLE-LIEUT. MAURY'S

LETTER TO SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

In the January number of the COMPANION We published the deep-sea soundings made by Lieut. Berryman, from the United States brig Dolphin. By an examination of a map, and marking the positions of the vessels, observing the longitudes and latitudes, each sounding is seen, the fathoms are given, and all the details necessary to give a full understanding of the deep sea. These explorations of the ocean are wonderful, and will tend to advance science and society far more than any other discovery since the telegraph. It is necessary to extend these soundings northward of the last; and when the sea between the coast of Labrador and South Greenland, ranging thence northward to Iceland, the Shetland and coasts of Scotland, Norway and Sweden, the ocean will be as well understood as to its bottom as the land on which we walk. Not only do these soundings prove the depth of the ocean and the geology of the bottom, but also greatly aid in discovering the currents of the sea, which seem to be as diversified as the currents of air that sweep over the earth's surface.

We learn from Lieut. Maury, of the National Observatory, that "the deepest parts of the ocean will probably be found south of the parallel of 35° south. * * * As to the physical geography of the sea, it may be said we know nothing, or only so much as may be gathered from a few faint rays that

modern explorations have cast upon; and the officers of the navy have here afforded them the rare opportunity of building up a new department in physical geography.

The problem before them is an old one-to fathom the depths of the ocean is the proposition. It has either appalled by its magnitude, or baffled with its difficulties. At any rate, no systematic attempts have ever been made to guage its depths 'off soundings.' But now, with means the most simple, this first great problem in the physical geography of the sea seems to be in a fair way of receiving a satisfactory solution, at least so far as to enable us to form a tolerable correct idea as to the general forms of the great oceanic basins and the troughs, which, like spurs from the mountain ranges, start out from the depressions in the solid crust below its waters, into bays, gulfs, and arms of the sea. Of all the contrasts in nature, perhaps none would be more striking than that afforded between the elevations of the earth's crust into mountains on the one hand, and its depressions below the sea-level in the beds of the ocean on the other. Certainly, few would be more grand-none can be more imposing.

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The ocean teems with life, we know. Of the four elements of the old philosophers-fire, earth, air, and water-perhaps the sea most of all abounds with living creatures.

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Brooke's lead and the microscope, therefore, it would seem, are about to teach us to regard the ocean in a new light. Its bosom, which so teems with animal life, its face, upon which time writes no wrinkles, makes no impression, are, it would seem, as obedient to the great law of change as is any department whatever, either of the animal or the vegetable kingdom. It is now suggested that, henceforward, we should view the surface of the sea as a nursery teeming with nascent organisms; its depths, as the cemetery for families of living creatures that outnumber the sands on the sea-shore for multitude.

Where there is a nursery, hard by there will be found also a graveyard. Such is the condition of the animal world. But it never occurred to us before to consider the surface of the sea one wide nursery, its every ripple as a cradle, and its bottom as one vast burial-place.

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In the deep sea there are no abrading processes at work; neither frosts nor rains are felt there; and the force of gravitation is so paralyzed down there that it cannot use half its power, as on the dry land, in tearing the overhanging rock from the precipice, and casting it down in the valley below.

When, therefore, I was treating of the basin of the Atlantic, the imagination was disposed to regard the waters of the sea as a great cushion placed between the air and the bottom of the ocean, to protect and defend it from these abrading agencies of the atmosphere.