380 ATHENS-ATHOS. The A'THLETE (Gr. athleo, to contend), the name given to a cominfused new courage and enthusiasm into the Greek nation. period between the Persian war and the time of Alexander the batant, pugilist, wrestler, or runner, in ancient Greece. Athletics Great, or from 500 to 336 B.C., was the most glorious in Athenian were studied in Greece as a branch of art, and led to several usehistory; and in 444, Cimon and Pericles raised the city to its high-ful rules of diet, exercise, &c., applicable to ordinary modes of A herald est point of grandeur and beauty. But under Pericles, the begin- life. Bodily strength and activity were so highly honored by the ning of a decline took place, through the decay of ancient morals Greeks, that the A. held a position in society totally different from and the Peloponnesian war, which ended in the capture of A. by that of the modern pugilist. When he proposed to enter the lists the Lacedæmonians. After this, A. retained only the shadow of at the Olympic or other public games, he was examined with reThe thirty appointed ministers of gard to his birth, social position, and moral character. its former power and dignity. government were, in fact, so many tyrants, supported by the then stepped forth and called upon any one, if he knew aught disAfter eight months of despotism had been graceful to the candidate, to state it. Even men of genius conLacedæmonian army. endured, the tyrants were expelled by Thrasybulus, a free consti- tended for the palm in athletic exercises. Chrysippus and Cletution was restored to A., and a new period of prosperity com-anthes, the famous philosophers, were victorious athletes, or, at But it was not destined to endure long; a formidable least, agonista, i. e., persons who pursued gymnastic exercises, not menced. foe, Philip of Macedon, now appeared in the north. The Atheni- as a profession, but for the sake of exercise, just as at the present ans having opposed him in the Phocian war, Philip took from them day we have gentlemen-cricketers, amateur-pugilists, &c. The proSo great several of their colonies. Then followed the defeat of the Atheni- found and eloquent Plato appeared among the wrestlers in the ans at Charoneia (338 B.C.), a fatal blow to Greece. A. with other Isthmian games at Corinth, and also in the Pythian games at states became subject to Macedon. The free spirit of the citizens Sicyon. Even the meditative Pythagoras is said to have gained a was broken, and in moral character they degenerated. After prize at Elis, and gave instructions for athletic training to EurymAlexander's death, a fruitless attempt was made to regain their enes, who afterwards gained a prize at the same place. liberty. Antipater instituted an oligarchy of wealth. Soon after- was the honor of an Olympian victor, that his native city was rewards, A. was taken by Cassander, and placed under the rule of garded as ennobled by his success, and he himself considered Demetrius Phalereus, who employed his power wisely and benefi- sacred. He entered the city through a special breach made in the cently. Once more the old constitution of A. was restored by walls; he was supported at the public expense; and when he After Italy, who had, with only one exception, been regularly victorious Demetrius Poliocretes, and a short interval of independence was died, was honored with a public funeral. Euthymus, of Locri in They were introduced by enjoyed, until the city was taken by Antigonus Gonatas. liberating themselves from the dominion of Macedon, and joining at Elis, was honored with a statue, to which, even during his lifethe Achaian confederacy, the Athenians were so misguided as to time, homage was paid by command of an oracle. Athletic sports support Mithridates against the Romans. The last error was fatal. were first witnessed at Rome 186 B.C. Sulla conquered A., destroying the port of the Peiræus, and left M. Fulvius at the end of the Etolian war, and became excessively only the appearance of liberty and independence, which entirely popular in the time of the emperors. At Rome, the athletes vanished in the time of Vespasian. Still, after the spirit of liberty formed a corporation. and progress had departed, A. long remained safe from spoliation. The Romans, in their respect for Grecian pre-eminence in art and philosophy, and moved also by religious reverence, long regarded Athens as a captive too noble and beautiful to suffer any indignity: A'THENS, a name applied to twenty-three places in the United States. The most important of them is a thriving town in Georgia, 92 miles to the west-north-west of Augusta. It is the terminus of a branch-railway, which joins the Georgia Central. It contains several cotton factories, and is the market for an extensive cottongrowing region. It is the seat also of the university of Georgia, Pop. (1871) 4251; (1881) 6099. and has three newspapers. Almost A'THERINE (Atheri'na), a genus of small fishes, allied to the Mullet family (Mugilida), but latterly separated into a distinct family, Atherinida. The Atherines have more than twice as many vertebræ as the Mullets; they are of a rather slender form, but few of them exceed six inches in length. They have a protractile mouth, and very small teeth; some are quite toothless. all the known species, which are numerous, and found in the seas of different parts of the world, have a broad silvery band along each flank. Some of them are much esteemed for their delicacy. They all congregate in great shoals. They abound in the MediOne species, A. Presbyter, is very common on the south coast of England and on some parts of the coast of Ireland, terranean. Atherine (Atherina Presbyter). The ATHLO'NE, a small town in the center of Ireland, on both It is the largest town between partly in that of Roscommon. sides of the Shannon, chiefly in the county of Westmeath, but Dublin and Galway, and lies on a commanding situation, 3 miles below Lough Ree, in a carboniferous lime-stone district. chief manufactures are felt-hats, friezes, linens, and stays. A canal here, a mile long, enables large river-steamers to navigate the Shannon for 116 miles, from Killaloe to Carrick-on-Shannon, Pop. (1871) 6565; (1881) 6901. uninterrupted by the river-rapids. The Shannon is crossed by a fine bow-string and lattice iron bridge of two arches, 175 and 40 feet span. A. sends one member to parliament. A. Castle, on the Roscommon bank of the Shannon, was founded in the reign of King John, and has now been rendered one of the chief military positions in Ireland. The fortifications cover 15 acres, and contain barracks for 1500 me. A'THOLE (Pleasant Land), a district of 450 square miles, in the of the Grampian mountains, and is intersected by many narrow north of Perthshire. It occupies a great part of the southern slopes glens, down which flow the rapid tributaries of the Tay. It is A. was once one of the best hunting chiefly composed of gneiss and quartz rock, with beds of primary tonic theory of geology. limestone. Dr. Hutton's explorations among the granite veins in Glen Tilt, were among the chief means of establishing the Pludistricts in Scotland. Athole deer-forest is said to contain 100,000 acres, and 10,000 head of deer, of which 100 are killed annually. In the picturesque Pass of Killiecrankie, in this district, 17 miles north-west of Dunkeld, Claverhouse fell in 1689, though victorious over the trops of King William III. of the southern towns of but is rare on the east coast of Britain. In the markets of some England where the Smelt (q. v.) is unknown, it is sold under that name: in Brighton and some other A'THOR, or ATHYR, but properly, Het-her, i. e., the habitaplaces, it is called Sand Smelt. Where this fish tion of God,' the name of an Egyptian goddess who, in the mythabounds, it is often taken ological system of that people, is ranked among the second class of deities. She was the daughter of Ra, the sun. By the Greeks, by anglers from the shore, biting readily at almost any bait. ATHERO'MA, or 'fatty deposit,' is generally found in the she was identified with Aphrodite (Venus). The cow was retissues of aged persons, or those who have lived dissipated and ill-garded as her symbol, and, in hieroglyphics, she generally ap nourished lives. In appearance, it is yellow and cheesy, showing pears with the head of that animal, bearing between her horns the under the microscope fatty granules and crystals of cholesterine. figure of the sun's disk. A. is also represented as a cow itself, and Its most common situation is between the middle and inner coats as a bird with human face, horns, and the sun's disk. On the of arteries, and is dangerous, inasmuch as it interferes with the oldest monuments, she is frequently portrayed bearing a temple A. generally falsely supposed to be heads of Isis. Originally, the goddess had cosmogonie significance; later, she was called the mistress of elasticity of the arterial tube, rendering it more liable to injury, on her head, as in the Athor-capitals of the Ptolemaic buildings, and less able to repair itself, should any occur. the cord of love and the tambourine. Queens and princesses were precedes aneurism (q. v.). Cysts filled with contents resembling a bread-sauce, which frequently occur in the scalp, are termed dance and jest, and held in her hands, as symbols of joy, atheromatous tumors. ATHERSTONE, a market-town of Warwickshire, England, often represented by the figure of A. Her worship was genon the borders of Leicestershire, 16 miles north-east from Birming-erally spread through Egypt. Her most sacred abode was at ham; in a valley surrounded by finely wooded hills, on the Roman Denderah. After her the third month of the Egyptian year was road called Watling Street, the Trent Valley Railway, and the Coventry and Fazeley Canal. The town is irregularly built; many of the houses are very ancient; the old houses are of stone, the modern ones of brick. Some of the modern churches and other public buildings are handsome structures. Hats, stockings, and ribbons are manufactured here. Pop. (1871) 3661. named. A'THOS, HA'GION OʻROS, or MO'NTÉ SA'NTO, i. e., the Holy Hill, the principal mountain of a chain extending, in a peninsular form, from the coast of Macedonia into the gean Sea, with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The length of the penbetween the Gulfs of Contessa and Monté Santo, and connected ATHY-ATLANTIC OCEAN. insula is 40 miles; breadth, 4. According to tradition, it received its name from A., son of Neptune, or from A., a giant who battled against the gods. The highest summit in the chain, or Mount A. proper, a solitary peak at the southern extremity of the peninsula, rises 6350 feet above the sea-level. In ancient times, several towns were built on A. Herodotus mentions five. The most memorable thing in connection with A., is the canal which Xerxes cut through the isthmus, in order to escape the stormy gales which rendered the navigatian round the promontory very perilous, and which had shattered the fleet of Mardonius some years before. Traces of this canal still exist. In the middle ages, A. was covered with monasteries, of which 20 still remain (besides several hermitages, chapels, &c.). The largest are the monasteries of Ivoron and St Laura; the richest, Vatopædi. The entire number of monks who inhabit the 'Holy Hill' is about 8000. They form a kind of monastic republic under the Turkish government, to which they pay an annual tribute of nearly £4000. The monks follow the rule of Basilius, and lead an ascetic life, engaged chiefly in agriculture, gardening, and the care of bees. In diet, they restrict themselves to herbs, fruits, and fish. They carry on a considerable trade in amulets, images, crucifixes, wooden articles of furniture-all of their own manufacture-and also reap profits from the numerous visits of pilgrims. Karyæs, the principal place in the peninsula, is picturesquely situated in the midst of vineyards and gardens, and has 1000 inhabitants. Here the market is held; but no female, even of the animal kind, is permitted to be present, or even to enter the peninsula. In the middle ages, A. was the center of Greek learning and Christian-Byzantine art. Now, scarcely more than two or three monks, of tolerable education, can be found in a monastery. The libraries are neglected, though containing several beautiful old manuscripts, some specimens of which have been brought to Western Europe. They contain, however, little or nothing of value in classical literature. ATHY', a small town in the south-west of Kildare county, Ireland, on the E. side of the river Barrow, here joined by the Grand Canal. It lies in a carboniferous limestone district. It chiefly consists of 2 main streets. Pop. (1881) 4181. Its chief export is grain. ATLANTA, a flourishing city of Georgia. It owes its prosperity chiefly to its situation, five important railways cor necting here-the Atlanta and West Point, the Atlanta and Richmond, the Georgia, the Macon and Western, and the Atlantic and Western. Independently of these means of communication, the surrounding country, besides being rich in grain and cotton, contains gold, iron, and other valuable minerals. A. was destroyed by General Sherman, November, 1865, but is rapidly recovering its former prosperity. Pop. (1880) 37,421. See ATLANTA in AM. SUPP. ATLA'NTES, in Arch., so called, by the Greeks, in reference to the mythical Atlas, (q. v.), are male figures used instead of columns. The Romans called Atlas Column, from the Baths them Telamones. at Pompeii. 381 tent of its shores is immense, over 50,000 miles, several thousands more than that of the shores of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Except near the continents, the Atlantic is poor in islands compared with the Pacific. The chief islands in the open ocean are Iceland, Farö, Bermudas, Azores, Ascension, St. Helena, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and Sandwich Land. The A. is the greatest highway of the civilized world, and everything that concerns its navigation is of great importance. Under the system of observations carried on for many years by the governments of Holland, Great Britain, the United States, and France, much has been done to amass information as to its currents, winds, depth, temperature, &c., the chief results of which either have been or are in the course of being published. The operations connected with the telegraph-cable were also the means of furnishing us with some valuable information regarding the Atlantic. The chief A. currents are two. The Equatorial Current, which, starting from about the island of St. Thomas, in the Gulf of Guinea, with a rate of motion varying from 18 to 24 miles a day, proceeds westwards on both sides of the equator till near Cape San Roque, where it divides, one branch running south along the coast of Brazil, and the other along the coast of Guiana into the Caribbean Sea. The velocity of this current is 24 miles a day at the point where it curves south, whence it gradually diminishes in strength as it proceeds southward to little more than six miles a day. Within the South A. there is a complete circulation of the waters, induced by the prevailing winds, and maintained at about twelve miles a day Its force also varies with the months, being determined by the prevailing force of the wind of each month. Its breadth varies from 200 to 400 miles; and since it is fed by currents from north and south of it, its temperature is consequently considerably lower in the eastern than in the western part of its course. The other great current is the Gulf Stream. This, originally part of the equatorial current, after flowing past the Guiana coast, and through the Caribbean Sea, issues from the Gulf of Mexico, through the Strait of Florida, and after following the direction of the American coast to about 46°, turns seaward, touches the great Newfoundland Bank, and gradually curving round, is lost as a distinct current about the Azores (see GULF STREAM). The water of this stream is often upwards of 26° warmer than the surrounding ocean. The Gulf Stream has an immense influence on the Atlantic. Besides these great currents the A. abounds in smaller ones, such as the northerly currents along the East Greenland and Labrador coasts (this Arctic current extending as far south as 36° N. lat., its rate being from 24 to 10 miles a day); the southerly current along the west of Greenland; Rennel's current, west of the Bay of Biscay; and the great current along the west of Africa, from Morocco southwards, till it is merged in the Guinea current. The whole of these currents, follow in every case the prevailing winds of the regions where they flow. Since over the whole of the eastern half of the A., from about N. lat. 45° northwards, the prevailing winds are south-westerly, there is over the same region a general flow of the water of the ocean towards the north-east, passing the British Isles, and thence along the coast of Norway, to some distance east of the North Cape. It is to this circumstance that the mild temperatures of winter climates from this cause is very great, amounting to about North-western Europe must be referred. The amelioration of the 30° in the Hebrides, and to fully 40° in the Lofoden Islands. This effect is directly brought about, not by the winds alone, but by the influence of the winds and sea combined. The influence of currents on the temperature of the ocean is so great, that even in August, the isothermal of 50° touches the north of Norway in lat. 720 N., whereas to south-east of Newfoundland the same isothermal descends to about lat. 42° N. Again, on the meridian of 74° W., the change of temperature from lat. 40° to 35° N., or 300 miles, is 1800; whereas on the meridian of 20° W. from lat. 40° to 10°, a distance of 1800 miles, the change of the temperature of the sea is only 15° 0. ATLANTIC OCEAN, so called either from Mount Atlas, or from the fabulous island of Atlantis, is that part of the ocean that divides the Old World from the New. Its extreme breadth is about 5000 miles, and its narrowest part, between Cape St. Roque in Brazil, and the nearest point in Africa, about 1600 miles. If the A. be supposed to be bounded by the polar circles, and to include the Caribbean Sea, Hudson Bay, Mediterranean Sea, and the other connected water-surfaces, it covers an area computed at 35 million square miles. The A. is naturally divided into three portionsthe north, south, and intertropical A. It stands in open connection with the north and south polar seas, and' in the remarkable The temperature of the A. about the equator is, if we except the parallelism of its coasts, resembles rather a vast river than an part between 200 and 35° W. long., above 80°: that of the Gulf of ocean. Its northern half sends off numerous ramifications on both Guinea reaches the maximum of 85° in April; from October to sides, some of them forming almost shut seas: on the west, Hud- May it is above 80°; in June and September about 80°; and in son's Bay, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Gulf of Mexico; on July and August it falls below 86°: that of the Caribbean Sea is the east, the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Black Seas. In above 80° from July to October, during the rest of the year below the south, again, both coasts present a comparatively unbroken 80°, except in July. Between 10° and 30° lat. N., the temperature line; and there is a remarkable correspondence between their pro- of the eastern part of the A. is always from 3° to 70 colder than jecting and retiring angles, the convex coast of Brazil lying oppo- the western, and the maximum and minimum temperatures take site to the Gulf of Guinea, and the projection of Senegambia place later in the year in the Caribbean Sea than off the African answering to the retirement of the American coast in the Carib-coast. bean Sea. The whole of the New World, with the exception of the narrow strip lying west of the Andes and Rocky Mountains belongs to the basin of this ocean. It drains comparatively little of the Old World, as may be seen by tracing the water-shed on a map. Owing to the numerous seas and inlets connected with it, the ex Much has been done recently, particularly by H.M.'s ships Porcupine and Challenger, in throwing light on the physical geography of the A. The most important of the observations are those of deep and bottom temperatures, from their connection with oceanic circulation, and the distribution of life in the depths of the sea, and the bearings of the questions thereby raised on geological 382 ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. speculation (see art. SEA). Animal life abounds at much greater depths than was formerly supposed; although beyond 6000 feet it gradually diminishes. A great part of the bottom of the North Atlantic is covered with a slimy 'ooze,' composed for the most part of the chalk-producing globigerina; in very deep parts this is replaced by a brown, clay-like mud, with few traces of animal forms. Regarding the depth of the A., it is only recently that reliable data have been obtained; along certain tracts, especially those of the Challenger, the profile of the bottom can now be laid down with considerable certainty. The deepest sounding made by the Challenger with its improved method of sounding (see SOUNDINGS), is 3875 fathoms, or 23,250 feet, at a point about 90 miles off St. Thomas, West Indies. A remarkable ridge, about 400 miles wide, and 10,000 to 12,000 feet, or 2 to 24 miles, below the surface of the sea, extends along the bottom of the A. from Cape Clear in Ireland to Cape Race in Newfoundland, a distance of 1640 miles. Along this, which is known as the Telegraph Plateau,' the Atlantic cables are laid. The accompanying diagram exhibits the depths and temperatures in the track between New York and Bermuda : Section of the North Atlantic Ocean between New York and Bermuda. Showing the Soundings (in fathoms) and Isothermal Lines obtained in H.M.S. Challenger, Captain G. S. Nares, 1873. ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. Referring to other articles for details concerning the scientific and mechanical principles of electro-telegraphy, the Atlantic cables may more especially be described here. The possibility of laying an electric cable in the Atlantic, from Europe to America, was suggested by Professor Morse so far back as 1843; but it was not until 1854 that Mr. Cyrus Field and others discussed the means of practically realizing the idea. Lieutenant Maury discovered that the bed of the Atlantic, between Ireland and Newfoundland, forms a kind of plateau, covered with soft ooze, favorably situated as a resting-place for a cable. In 1855, negotiations were carried on, partly in America, but chiefly in England, to establish a company and raise capital; which objects were attained in 1856. The New York and Newfoundland Telegraph Company' connected Newfoundland with the mainland of America by cables and land wires; but the Electric Telegraph Company undertook the laying of a cable from Newfoundland to Ireland, with a capital of £350,000, in shares of £1000 each. A length of 2500 English miles of cable was ordered, and was completed by the summer of 1857. The conductor consisted of 7 fine copper wires, No. 22 gauge, twisted tightly together, forming a cord th inch thick, and weighing 107 lbs. per mile. This thickness was increased to 8th inch by a core of three layers of guttapercha. Outside the core was a jacket of hempen yarn, saturated with pitch, tar, bees-wax, and boiled linseed oil. The outer sheath consisted of 18 strands, each formed of 7 No. 22 iron wires. The whole diameter was about th inch, and the weight 1 ton per mile. In the manufacturing processes, the wires and yarns were twisted round each other by revolving drums and circular tables worked by steam-power; while the coatings of gutta-percha were applied by forcing the substance through dies which had the copper conductor passing through their center. The Niagara and the Agamemnon, the one lent by the United States governinent and the other by the English, took 1250 miles of the cable each, and steamed forth from Valentia (west coast of Ireland) on August 7, 1857. The Niagara paid out her portion of cable as she went. On the 11th, in an attempt to slacken the rate of paying out, the cable snapped, and the end sank in 2000 fathoms of water, at 280 miles from Ireland. The appliances on board were not sufficient to remedy the disaster, and the two ships returned to Plymouth, where the two portions of cable were placed in tanks until the next following year. The Atlantic Telegraph Company raised more capital, made 900 miles additional cable, and prepared for a new attempt in 1858. The Niagara and Agamemnon were again employed; but the submersion was to begin in mid-ocean, one ship proceeding eastward, and the other westward, after splicing the two halves of the cable. They left Valentia, June 10; but it was not till the 26th that they could finish the splice and commence the submersion. On the 29th, a double breakage took place, and 144 miles of cable went to the bottom, wholly severed from the rest. The Agamemnon returned to England for improved appliances and further instructions; and a month was thus lost. On July 29, the two ships again spliced their two halves of cable in mid-ocean, and proceeded with their work without further disaster. On August 6, the Agamemnon reached Valentia, and the Niagara Newfoundland, and exchanged congratulatory messages through the whole length of cable. Soon afterwards, greetings were exchanged between the Queen and the President, and between many public bodies and official persons. The station at Newfoundland was connected by wires and cables with the general telegraphic system of America; and that at Valentia with the general system of Europe. The cable continued working until September 1, sending 129 messages (of about 11 words each on an average) from England to America, and 271 from America to England. The signals then ceased, and the cable became useless; it had been injured by the winter's sojourn at Plymouth. From 1858 to 1864, the Company were engaged in endeavoring to raise new capital, and to obtain increased subsidies from the English and American governments; while scientific men were making improvements in the form of cable, and in the apparatus for submerging it. At length the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (formed by an amalgamation of the Gutta Percha Company with the wire-cable-making firm of lass and Elliott) made an entirely new cable, much thicker and more costly than the former one. The conductor, 306 lbs. per mile, and th inch thick, consisted of seven No. 18 copper wires, each th inch thick. The core was formed of four layers of gutta perchia alternating with four of Chatterton's Compound (a solution of gutta percha in Stockholm tar); the core and conductor together were 700 lbs. per mile, and th inch thick. Outside this was a jacket of hemp or jute yarn, saturated with preservative composition. The sheath consisted of 10 iron wires, No. 13 gauge, each previously covered with 5 tarred Manilla yarns. The whole cable was 14th inch thick, and weighed 354 cwt. per mile, with a breaking strain of 74 tons. As the cable (2300 miles) weighed more than 4000 tons, it was resolved to employ the Great Eastern steam-ship to carry it out and lay it. Three enormous iron tanks were built in the fore, middle, and aft holds, from 50 to 60 feet diameter each, by 201 feet deep; and in these the cables were deposited, in three vast coils. On July 23, 1865, the Great Eastern started from Valentia with her burden, the main cable being joined end to end to a more massive shore cable, which was drawn up the cliff at Foilhummerum Bay, to a telegraph house at the top. The electric condition of the cable was kept constantly under test during the progress of the ship; and more than once, the efficiency was disturbed by fragments of wire piercing the gutta percha and destroying the insulation. On August 2, the cable snapped by over-straining, and the end sank to the bottom, in 2000 fathoms water, at a distance of 1064 miles from Ireland. Then commenced the remarkable process of dredging for the cable. A five-armed grapnel, suspended from the end of a strong iron-wire rope, five miles long, was thrown overboard; and when it reached the bottom, it was dragged to and fro across the line of cable by slow steaming of the Great Eastern; the hope being that one or other of the prongs would catch hold of the cable. A series of disasters followed by the breaking of swivels, and the loss of grapnels and ropes; until at length, on August 11, it was found that there were no more materials on board to renew the grappling. The Great Eastern returned to England, leaving (including the operations of 1857-1858) nearly 4000 tons of electric cable useless at the bottom of the Atlantic. A new capital, and new commercial arrangements altogether, were needful for a renewal of the attempt. Another cable was made, slightly differing from the former. The jacket outside the core was made of hemp instead of jute; the iron wires of the ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. sheath were galvanized, instead of being left in their natural state; and the Manilla hemp which covered them was left white instead of being tarred. These few changes made it weigh nearly 500 lbs. per mile less, mainly through the absence of tar; while its strength or breaking strain was increased. Enough of this cable was made to span the Atlantic, with allowance for slack; while a sufficient aadition of the 1865 cable was provided to remedy the disaster of that year. The Atlantic telegraph operations in 1866 were of a remarkable and interesting kind. On July 13, the Great Eastern set forth from Valentia, accompanied by the steamers Terrible, Medicay, and Albany, which were to assist in the submersion and in subsidiary matters. The line of route was chosen midway between those of the 1858 and 1865 cables, for the most part a few miles from each. The Great Eastern exchanged telegrams almost continuously with Valentia during her progress. The mishaps were few in number, and easily remedied; and the Great Eastern safely entered the harbor of Heart's Content, Newfoundland, on the 27th. After this, operations commenced for recovering the end of the 1865 cable, and completing the submersion. The Albany, Medway, and Terrible set off, on August 1, to the spot on the ocean beneath which the end of the cable was lying, or as near to it as calculations could establish. Certain buoys, left anchored there twelve months previously, had been carried away by the storms of the preceding winter; but the latitude and longitude had been very carefully registered. The Great Eastern started from Heart's Content on the 9th, and then commenced a series of grappling operations, which continued through the rest of the month. The cable was repeatedly caught, and raised to a greater or less height from the ocean-bed; but something or other snapped or slipped every time. After much trial of patience, the end of the cable was safely fished up on September 1; and electric messages were at once sent through to Valentia, just as well as if the cable had not had twelve months' soaking in the Atlantic. An additional length having been spliced to it, the laying recommenced; and on the 8th the squadron entered Heart's Content; having thus succeeded in laying a second line of cable from Ireland to America. Mishaps have since taken place; but in every case the injuries have been attended to, and the two cables maintained in good working order. The rapidity.of signalling (at first only two words per minute) was greatly increased; the tariff of charges was lowered; the public of the two nations used the cable-telegraph extensively; and the company realized good dividends, notwithstanding the heavy expenditure which had been incurred. The art of laying submarine cables being thus established, many other projects for Atlantic telegraphy have from time to time been started. One scheme was for a line from the North of Scotland to Faroe Islands, Icela .d, Greenland, and some point near the mouth of the St. Lawrence; but the projectors did not succeed in raising capital. A French company afterwards planned a direct route from France to America. In June 1869, the Great Eastern steamed out of Brest with this new cable, no less than 2328 riles long; and the submersion was successfully effected. There is a connection between Brest and Falmouth. A new French cable from Brest to the island of St. Pierre, to the south of Newfoundland, was laid in the end of 1879. In the year 1874, a third British cable was successfully laid from Ireland to Newfoundland. A Direct United States Cable Company' was also formed; Messrs. Siemens undertook the manufacture of the cable, the lightest yet planned for Atlantic telegraphy, its weight being 480 pounds of copper and 400 pounds of gutta-percha per mile; about 3060 miles were needed from Ireland to New Hampshire. The laying of the cable was completed early in the summer of 1875. Lower down the Atlantic, extensive operations have been or are being completed. When a cable had been laid from Falmouth to Lisbon, the latter became the starting-point for extensive ocean routes. The Brazilian Submarine Cable Company' began in 1873 a cable to extend from Lisbon to Madeira, St. Vincent, and Pernambuco. The whole length is 4000 miles, of which the longest section (across the ocean) is somewhat under 2000 miles; it is connected at Pernambuco with other cables to Para, Rio Grande, &c. 383 There is a 'Direct Spanish Cable' from the Lizard to Bilbao; and there are duplicate lines from Falmouth to Lisbon. In and near the Gulf of Mexico, the electricians have been working with great energy. Most of the principal West India islands are now connected by cable one with another, with Colon (Panama), and with the United States mainland at Florida. Great Eastern paying out the Atlantic Cable. ATLANTIC TE'LEGRAPH, HISTORY OF. In 1842, Professor Morse of New York, having stretched a submarine cable between Castle Garden and Governor's Island, Boston, and succeeded in transmitting an electric current from one end to the other, expressed his opinion that it would be possible to effect an electrical communication through the sea. After further investigations, he announced to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, that a telegraphic communication on his plan might with certainty be established across the Atlantic.' Three years prior to that, Sir William O'Shaughnessy gave practical proof that electrical messages could be conveyed through water, by depositing a cable in the bed of the Hooghly; but it was the successful submarine telegraphic undertakings of the Messrs. Brett, who, in June 1845, registered a General Oceanic Telegraph Company,' with the object among others of joining this country with America by means of a telegraph across the Atl..ntic Ocean,' and six years afterwards united England with France (see TELEGRAPH, History), that first fairly convinced the public mind that the New World might be put on what may be called conversational terms with the Old. The supposed great depths of the Atlantic Ocean presented the most imposing obstacle to this desired closeness of communion; but when it was discovered that between Ireland and Newfoundland there extended, along the bottom of the Atlantic, at a depth of not more than two miles below the surface, a fine broad platform (see ATLANTIC OCEAN), seemingly so specially formed by nature for the purpose of electrical communication, that Captain Maury at once designated it the Telegraphic Plateau, the project of an Atlantic submarine cable assumed a practicable form. In 1854, the colonial government of Newfoundland passed an act incorporating a company to establish a telegraphic communication between the Old World and the New, and aided it by a subsidy, and by grants of lands. The colonial government also conferred upon the company the exclusive right of landing a telegraphic line upon the coast under its jurisdiction. The government of Prince Edward's Island and the state of Maine made similar concessions; and authority for certain subsidiary operations in Canada was also obtained. The company, incorporated under the title of "The New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company,' commenced operations by uniting St. John's in Newfoundland with lines in the United States and British North America. This done, numerous preliminary experiments were undertaken by eminent electricians and engineers, in order to determine the amount of retarding force which inducted and disguised electricity were likely to offer to the transmission of currents along submarine wires of unusual length. Having by these experiments, 2000 in number, tried with 62 different kinds of cable, determined the one best adapted 384 ATLANTIS-ATMOSPHERE. After head and hands-the sting of this mythological punishment obviously being, that A. was compelled to support what he thirsted to destroy. The later writers, however, rationalize the myth, and state that A. was a mighty king who had great skill in astronomy, and only tried to storm heaven intellectually.-In consequence of the ancient views which made the vault of heaven rest on solid pillars or other supports, the name A., originally mythological and cosmogonic, was introduced into geography. Merca tor, in the 16th c., gave the name A. to a collection of maps; probably because the figure of A. supporting the heavens had been given on the title-pages of such works. for the conveyance of electricity through such a length, and at Titans, he attempted to storm the beavens, and for this supreme such a depth in the Atlantfe, the next step was the formation of treason was condemned by Zeus to bear the vault of heaven on his a more influential company. In 1856, The A. T. Company,' to which all the privileges conferred on the old company were handed over, was formed with a capital of £350,000. The governments of Great Britain and the United States liberally aided the company, guaranteeing, by a contract of 25 years' duration, to pay to the company, until such time as its dividend reached 6 per cent., a subsidy of £14,000 a year, and of £10,000 subsequently. They also agreed to furnish ships for laying down the cable. The cable, which weighed about a ton per mile, equal to 14 cwt. in water, was composed of a strand of seven wires of pure copper, coated with three separate layers of gutta percha, wrapped over with hemp saturated with pitch and tar, and finally bound round with iron wires, 332,500 miles of iron and copper wire being emA'TLAS, a mass of mountain-land in the western part of North ployed in its construction. It was deposited in the holds of the situated on the south-west of the Little Syrtis, and twenty days Africa. Herodotus mentions a smoking mountain of this name Agamemnon, a line-of-battle ship supplied by the British government, and the Niagara, a splendid frigate furnished by the United journey westwards from the Garamantes, styled by the natives the States, and the two vessels started on their grand mission. pillars of heaven.' By later writers, after the time of Polybius, two unsuccessful attempts during the years 1857 and 1858, the exthe name A. was always given to the chain of mountains in Northpedition started again for mid-ocean, whence the ships were to west Africa extending from the island of Cerne (now Cape de Ger) start, paying-out towards opposite shores, on the 17th of July, 1858. north-west through Mauritania, and Tingitana (now Fez and MaThe cable was united and lowered on the 29th of the same month; rocco), and including also the heights dispersed through the region and the Agamemnon, notwithstanding a severe gale of wind, arrived the forme, denominating a secondary range in the country of Sous, of Sahara. It is divided into the Little Atlas and the Great Atlas; at Valentia, having successfully laid her portion of it, on the morning and the other, the loftier mountains of Marocco. The A. is not proof the 5th of August. The Niagara about the same time arrived in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, and science had annihilated space be- perly a mountain-chain, but rather a very irregular mountainous tween the Old World and the New. On the 17th August, the ex-meeting in mountain-knots, or connected by yokes, or short chains mass of land formed of many chains running in various directions, tremities of the cable having been put in connection with the recording-instruments, the following message was flashed through of inferior height, and diversified still further by several solitary the ocean in thirty-five minutes: Europe and America are united mountains and groups of mountains. The A. attains its greatest by telegraph. Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace and height (13,000 feet) in Marocco, the only part where it rises above the good-will towards men.' Messages and replies from the Queen to tains. Its highest peaks are Miltsin-27 miles south-east of the city snow-line, and obtains the name of Jebel-el-Thelj, or Snowy Mounthe President of the United States, from the Mayor of London to of Marocco-Bibawan, and Tagherain. The most southern chain dithe Mayor of New York, &c., followed. tember, the signals at Valentia became unintelligible. But on the 4th of Sep-verging here from the central mass bears the name Jebel-Hadnar. mercial message of great importance passed through the cable, in out into the Atlantic. From Marocco, the A. gradually decreases The heights approach the sea, and form the promontories jutting reference to the collision between the Atlantic steamers, the Europa in height towards the east. In Algeria, the elevation is only 7673 and Arabia; this single message saved the commercial world feet; in Tunis, 4476 feet; and in Tripoli, 3200 feet. The whole £50,000, which would doubtless have been spent in extra insurance mountain-system is intersected by the valley of the Muluia river, on the vessels and cargoes thus delayed. The cable of 1858 having which flows through the north-east part of Marocco, and falls into become useless, two other lines were laid in 1865 and 1866, between the Mediterranean. The slopes on the north, west, and south are Great Britain and North America. A cable was laid in 1869 from France to the United States. For the history of the Atlantic Tele-covered with vast forests of pine, oak, cork, white poplar, wild graph since 1869, see ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. See also TELEolive, &c. The valleys are well watered and capable of cultivation with great profit. The A. seems to be chiefly calcareous in its wholly unexplored, though copper, iron, lead, antimony, &c., are composition. The mineral wealth remains, however, almost stated to exist in abundance. GRAPH. One com ATLANTIS, according to ancient tradition, the name of a vast island in the Atlantic Ocean. It is first mentioned by Plato, who represents an Egyptian priest as describing it to Solon, but, of course, according to Plato's view of the matter. In this description, A. appeared as an island larger than Libya and Asia Minor taken together, and lying off the Pillars of Hercules in the Atlantic Ocean. Plato gives a beautiful picture of the interior of this imaginary land, and enriches it with a fabulous history. Some early writers supposed that the Canary Islands were the remains of the old A.; for Plato had stated that at the close of the long contest which its inhabitants maintained against the Athenians, nine thousand years before his time, the sea suddenly engulfed the island, and had ever since been unnavigable, by reason of the shoals of mud created by the sunken island. Some found it in the Scandinavian peninsula; others (first Bircherod in 1685) have supposed that Phoenician or Carthaginian merchant-ships had been driven by storm on the coast of America, and that the supposed vast island of A. mentioned by Plato, as well as the great unnamed island spoken of by Pliny, Diodorus, and Arnobius, may have been the New World. ATLAS is that piece of the human vertebral column which is nearest to the skull; in other words, it is the first cervical vertebra. It may be known from the other six by its being without a body or spinuous process, by its being a mere irregular bony ring, partly divided into two unequal parts by a constriction; this division in the recent subject is completed by a ligament, the part in front being occupied by the tooth-like process of the second cervical vertebra, and that behind by the spinal-marrow. On each side, the ring is very thick; it is smooth and cupped above to receive the condyles of the occipital bone. The corresponding parts below are flat, and rest on the second cervical vertebra. The A., with the occipital bone, form the joint on which the head moves in bowing; and turns on the pivot of the second cer-weight equal to the weight of the volume of fluid displaced by it, vical vertebra, when we look from side to side. A'TMOSPHERE (Gr. atmos, vapor, sphaira, sphere) is the name applied to the gaseous envelope which surrounds the earth. The existence of an A. is to us a matter of vital importance. We owe to its influence the possibility of animal and vegetable life, the modifying and retaining of solar heat, the transmission of sound, the gradual shading of day into night, the disintegration of rocks, and the occurrence of weather phenomena. In consequence of the action of gravity, the A. assumes the form of a spheroidal stratum concentric with the earth, and presses heavily on its surface. It exhibits, in common with all fluid bodies, the usual characteristics of hydrostatic pressure, but its internal condition differs from that of a liquid inasmuch as its particles repel each other, and can only be held in proximity by external force. From this circumstance, it follows that the volume of any portion of air varies much more under the influence of external pressure than that of an equal volume of water, hence, the stratum of air nearest the earth is denser than strata in the upper regions, where, from their being subjected to the weight of a smaller mass of superincumbent air, the repulsive force of the particles has freer play. experiment. If a hollow glass globe of 5 or 6 inches in diameter That air possesses weight, is illustrated by the following simple be weighed first, when filled with air, and then, after the air has been extracted from it by means of the air-pump, it will, when thus exhausted, weigh sensibly less than it did before, and the difference of the two results will represent the weight of the quantity of air which has been withdrawn. It has been determined by eter is at 30 inches, and the thermometer at 60° Fahrenheit, weigh Biot and Arago that 100 cubic inches of dry air, when the baromCIPLE OF), that a body immersed in a fluid loses a part of its 31.074 grains. The law of Archimedes (see ARCHIMEDES, PRIN ATLAS, according to Hesiod's Theogony, one of the Titans, the son of Iapetus and Clymene, and brother, of Mencetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus. Apollodorus, however, states him to have been a son of Asia, and Hyginus, a son of Ether and Gaea. He married Pleone, daughter of Oceanus (or Hesperis, his own niece), and became the father of the Pleiades. As leader of the filled with air and closed be suspended at the extremity of the beam finds its application in the A. as well as in water. If a glass globe of a delicate balance, and be kept in equilibrium by a brass weight at the other extremity, and if the whole be then placed under the receiver of an air-pump, and the air extracted, the equilibrium previously existing in air will be disturbed, and the larger body will become the heavier. The reason of this is, that when first weighed, |