“I believe there are ten in all,” was the answer. “Two of them run to Newfoundland, and eight cross the fishing banks, and land either on the Nova Scotia or New England coast.”
“Is the very first one still working?” asked Breeze.
“No, the first one, which was laid in 1858, was only able to transmit, very feebly, one or two messages, and then it became silent, never to speak again. The first one that was of any real service was laid in 1864, as I well remember, for I saw the Great Eastern while she was laying it; but I believe that also has been long since abandoned.”
While they were thus talking they lost sight of the Vixen, and were once more alone on the broad ocean. Then Breeze, for the first time, fully realized that he was really bound on a long voyage across the stormy Atlantic to the distant coast of Iceland.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE DEVIL-FISH OF FLEMISH CAP.
Captain Coffin was an unusually well-informed man, and as Breeze was always on the lookout for stray bits of information, he took advantage of the opportunity afforded by this long voyage to ask the skipper a great many questions. One day, soon after leaving the Vixen, the lead, running out to a great depth, showed them to have crossed the Grand Bank, and to be on the deep waters of the North Atlantic. While they were talking of this, Breeze asked the captain how he supposed the Banks had been formed.
“My theory is,” answered the skipper, “that they were formed, and are constantly being added to, by icebergs. You see, every spring thousands of these big fellows come sailing down through Davis Strait for their summer outing. They bring with them tons and tons of gravel and sand, collected while they formed part of slow-moving arctic glaciers, or picked up off the bottom as they drifted along the Greenland and Labrador coasts. Now, no matter how large an iceberg is above water, it is more than twice as big below the surface--that is, we see less than one-third of its whole bulk, while the rest is under water. I saw one once aground in forty fathoms. Well, by-and-by the part that is under water begins to feel the influence of the Gulf Stream, and to melt much more rapidly than that which is above. As the bergs drift about in this melting condition, they lose, here and there, quantities of the sand they have brought with them. After a while they have melted away so much under water that they become top-heavy and capsize with a tremendous flurry, pitching overboard a great deal more of their cargo. Finally they melt away entirely, and all the material they have brought down from the north is swept up by the Gulf Stream, and deposited along its northern edge on what we call the Banks. To form them has been the slow but unceasing work of unnumbered centuries.”
“But why doesn’t this great quantity of sand and gravel pile itself up until it finally reaches the surface and becomes an island or a lot of small islands?”
“Because of the fierce currents that are continually sweeping over the Banks and scattering the material far and wide. They are caused by the mighty flow of the St. Lawrence River, by tides and winds, and very largely by the Gulf Stream; for, with such a volume of warm water flowing north and east all the time, there must be an equal quantity of cold water flowing south and west to take its place.”
“That’s so;” said Breeze, “I might have thought of that.”