SABLE ISLAND AS A FLOATING TELEGRAPH STATION.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXX, Issue 4783, 19 January 1884, Page 4

SABLE ISLAND AS A FLOATING TELEGRAPH STATION.

M. Buys Ballot proposed three years ago to establish stations at the Azoi'es and at Iceland, with one or more floating stations in the Atlantic, for the purpose of the collection and transmission of weather telegrams and the. general emyloyment of what he termed the "telcmeteograph." A recent writer in the Nautical Magazine suggests the use of Sable Island as a suitable station for this object. Sable Island is about 27 miles long by an average of one mile in breadth, its extreme ends pointing nearly east and west ; the former in lat. 43 59 N, long, 59 48 W, the latter (on westerly end) in lat. 43 57 N, and long, 60 14 W. It is situated about, 150 miles S.E. of Halifax, and about 85 miles S. £ E. of White Haven Harbor in Nova Scotia. Sable Island would be a most desirable place for landing a telegraph cable from Europe to America, for such a cable would soon bury itself out of reach in the sand which stretches for many miles far under the sea from all its sides, and near which, from its inaccessibility and dangers, vessels seldom or never approach, let alone come to an anchor. In other than the finest and most moderate weather it is impossible for any vessel to approach near the coast and live. If another cable be laid across the Atlantic, Sable Island should be the spot to land it first, and White Haven its final restingplace, for the reason that White Haven Harbor opens directly upon the ocean, and a cable there, as at Sable Island, would never bo disturbed by the anchoring of vessels.