As soon as communication was opened with New York, and other cities, congratulations poured in from every quarter. Friendly messages were exchanged—as eight years before—between the sovereign of England and the head of the Great Republic. The President also, and Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, sent their congratulations to Mr. Field—greetings that were repeated from the most distant States. Among others was a message from San Francisco, which was put into his hand almost at the same moment with one from M. de Lesseps, dated at Alexandria in Egypt! What a meeting and mingling of voices was this, when a winged salutation flying over the tops of the Rocky Mountains, reached the same ear with a message which had been whispered along the Mediterranean and under the Atlantic: when the farthest East touched the farthest West—the most ancient of kingdoms answering to the new-born empire of the Pacific.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The new method is thus explained by Mr. Deane:
"The fundamental difference between last year's system of testing and that of the present expedition is, that now all the ordinary tests for continuity may be made simultaneously with the test for insulation, which is not interrupted at all; whereas, last year, during half the time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was wholly neglected.
"Last year, each hour was divided into four parts. The first half of the hour was spent in testing for insulation. During the second half, which was divided into three periods of ten minutes each, tests were made to ascertain the resistance of the conductor and to prove the continuity of the same. All these tests were of such a nature as to afford no criterion whatever of the state of the insulation during their continuance, so that during the half of each hour, or, in other words, during half the time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was neglected. Also, while the insulation test was being made, there was no means of communicating with the shore, as the observations were taken on board only. This year, a test for insulation is constantly kept on, and, by Mr. Willoughby Smith's arrangement, corresponding observations are made both on ship and shore. At stated times during the hour, the continuity test is made at the shore station by means of a condenser applied to the conductor of the cable. The effect of this is to increase the deflection on the ship's insulation galvanometer, thus serving as a continuity test. Communications from shore to ship are also made by these means. The ship can send signals to the shore by simply reversing the current for certain lengths of time, answering to some understood code, or by increasing and diminishing the tension of the line, according to a preärranged plan. All these operations may be performed without interrupting the insulation test, except for a few seconds while the current is being reversed. So far for the new system in the electrical room as compared with last year."
[B] Mr. Dudley made a number of sketches for Mr. Field, with several large paintings, which have furnished the illustrations for this volume.
[C] The little harbor that bears this gentle name, is a sheltered nook where ships may ride at anchor, safe from the storms of the ocean. It is but an inlet from the great arm of the sea known as Trinity Bay, which is sixty or seventy miles long, and twenty miles broad. On the beach is a small village of some sixty houses, most of which are the humble dwellings of those hardy men who vex the northern seas with their fisheries. The place was never heard of outside of Newfoundland till 1864, when Mr. Field, sailing up Trinity Bay in the surveying steamer Margaretta Stevenson, Captain Orlebar, R. N., in search of a place for the landing of the ocean cable, fixed upon this secluded spot. The old landing of 1858 was at the Bay of Bull's Arm, at the head of Trinity Bay, twenty miles above. Heart's Content was chosen now because its waters are still and deep, so that a cable skirting the north side of the Banks of Newfoundland can be brought in deep water almost till it touches the shore. All around the land rises to pine-crested heights; and here the telegraphic fleet, after its memorable voyage, lay in quiet, under the shadow of the encircling hills.