The long serpent, covered with the remains of shells,
bristling with foraminiferae, was encrusted with a strong coating
which served as a protection against all boring molluscs.
It lay quietly sheltered from the motions of the sea, and under
a favourable pressure for the transmission of the electric
spark which passes from Europe to America in .32 of a second.
Doubtless this cable will last for a great length of time,
for they find that the gutta-percha covering is improved
by the sea-water. Besides, on this level, so well chosen,
the cable is never so deeply submerged as to cause it to break.
The Nautilus followed it to the lowest depth, which was more than
2,212 fathoms, and there it lay without any anchorage; and then
we reached the spot where the accident had taken place in 1863.
The bottom of the ocean then formed a valley about 100
miles broad, in which Mont Blanc might have been placed without
its summit appearing above the waves. This valley is closed
at the east by a perpendicular wall more than 2,000 yards high.
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