follow it, our intention being to confine ourselves entirely to a
brief account of those cables communicating directly with Europe and
America. As already stated, this company has altogether seventy
cables, of a total length of nearly 22,000 miles.

The Direct Spanish Telegraph Company has a cable, laid in 1884, from
Kennach Cove, Cornwall, to Bilbao, Spain, 486 miles in length (14).

Coming now to shorter cables connecting Britain with the Continent, we
have those of the Great Northern Telegraph Company, namely, Peterhead
to Ekersund, Norway, 267 miles (15). Newbiggin, near Newcastle, to
Arendal, Norway, 424 miles, and thence to Marstrand, Sweden, 98 miles.

Two cables from the same place in England to Denmark (Hirstals and
Sondervig) of 420 and 337 miles respectively (17 and 18).

The great Northern Company has altogether twenty-two cables, of a
total length of 6,110 miles. The line from Newcastle, is worked direct
to Nylstud, in Russia--a distance of 890 miles--by means of a "relay"
or "repeater," at Gothenburg. The relay is the apparatus at which the
Newcastle current terminates, but in ending there it itself starts a
fresh current on to Russia.

The other continental connections belong to the government, and are as
follows: two cables to Germany, Lowestoft to Norderney, 232 miles, and
to Emden, 226 miles (19 and 20).

Two cables to Holland: Lowestoft to Zandvoort, laid in 1858 (21), and
from Benacre, Kessingland, to Zandvoort (22).

Two cables to Belgium: Ramsgate to Ostend (23), and Dover to Furness
(24).

Four cables to France: Dover to Calais, laid in 1851 (25), and to
Boulogne (26), laid in 1859; Beachy Head to Dieppe (27), and to Havre
(28).

There is a cable from the Dorset coast to Alderney and Guernsey, and
from the Devon coast to Guernsey, Jersey, and Coutances, France (29
and 30).

A word now as to the instruments used for the transmission of
messages. Those for cables are of two kinds, the mirror galvanometer
and the siphon recorder, both the product of Sir Wm. Thomson's great
inventive genius.

When the Calais-Dover and other short cables were first worked, it was
found that the ordinary needle instrument in use on land lines was not
sufficiently sensitive to be affected trustworthily by the ordinary
current it was possible to send through a cable. Either the current
must be increased in strength or the instruments used must be more
sensitive. The latter alternative was chosen, and the mi