improving with newapparutus and the increasing skill of the operators. In 18C!) a French cable was laid from Brest to Saint Pierre, and four years later the Direct United States Cable Com- pany was formed, and a cable laid across the Atlantic, landing at Halifax. Nova Scotia, which has since become a favorite landing-spot for trans- Atlantic cables. This company was tlie first competitor of the Anglo-American Companj-, which in 1873 and 1874 laid new cables, again employing the (Ireat Etistcni for this purpose. In 18'?2 the ISGG cable broke down, and in 1877 the 180.5 cable also, so that in 1880 another cable was laid, which was connected to the shore ends of the 1806 cable. In 1879 the Compagnie Fran- gaise du Telegraphe de Paris a New-York laid a cable across the Atlantic, and in 1881 the Amer- ican Telegraph and Cable Company, formed by Jay Gould, laid a cable, which was followed by a second in the following year. In 1884 the Com- mercial Cable Company, or Slackay-Bennett Com- pany, as it was known from the names of its two chief owners, laid two cables, one of which ex- tended direct to New York. In 1894 another cable was laid for the Commercial Cable Com- pany, and also a new one for the Anglo-American Compan.y, giving the latter organization five working lines across the Atlantic Ocean. The longest telegraph cable to cross the Atlantic is that of the Compagnie Francaise des Cables Tfli^graphiques, which was laid in 1898, and ex- tends from Brest to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, being 3200 miles in length. It is one of the heaviest cables ever constructed, having 661 pounds of copper and 400 pounds of gutta-percha per nautical mile. In 1900 two cables were laid across the Atlantic, using the Azores as an inter- mediate station. One of these belonged to the Commercial Cable Company, and extended from Fayal to New York, via Nova Scotia, making the fourth cable operated by this company. At Fayal direct connection is had with Europe by means of the Europe and Azores Telegraph Company's system. In the spring of 1900 the cable of the Deutsch - Atlantische Telcgraphen - Gesellschaft was laid from Borkum to Fayal, and in the sum- mer extended to New York, so that on August 31 Emperor William and President SIcKinley were able to exchange messages. Late in the year 1901, a cable from Fayal, Azores, to Waterville, Ireland, was laid by the Commercial Cable Com- pany and successfully landed at the latter place on November 30, thus giving this company four working cables between Can.so and Waten'ille. There were, in 1902, 19 cables at the bottom of the Atlantic, of which three were dead, while of the others nearly all could be used duplex. The cost of a modern Atlantic cable is about $2,500,- 000, and it is interesting to compare this amount with the contract price of the first Atlantic cable, which was £22.-),000 (.$1,100,000). This is due to the greater conductivity, involving, of course, more weight in the core, and also to the increased price of gutta-percha, the supply of which is at least stationary, if not diminishing. It is stated that a submarine cable costs between five and seven times as much as a land line, while the total cost of nuinufacture and submersinn is seven to eight times as much as the construction and erection of the latter. Bright, l^ubm(iri)ie Telegraphs (London, 1808), is to be recommend- ed for a thorotigh treatment of the subject, and deals in detail with the history of the various Atlantic cables. Mr. Field's important part in the various cable enterprises is described, largely in the form of letters, in Judson, Cyrus W. Field.' His Life and n'ork (New York, 1896). See Telegraphy, SrnMARixE.
ATLAN'TIS (Gk. 'ArXan-is, scil. i/^<rot, ncsos^
island). A large island, which, according to an
ancient tradition, was situated in the Atlantic
Ocean, over against the Pillars of Hercules. It
is first mentioned by Plato, who, in the Timwus,
represents an Egyptian priest as describing it to
Solon. According to this account, Atlantis w'as
an island larger than Libya and Asia Minor
combined. Nine thousand years before the time
of Solon it had been a powerful nation, and had
been successfully resisted by the Athenians alone.
It had finally been engulfed by the sea, which
ever after remained unnavigable by reason of the
shoal of mud which had been raised on the spot.
In the C'rih'as, Plato gives a glowing description,
of tlie island, and adds thereto its fabulous his-
tory. The account of Plato has been considered
by some a pure invention of the author's iriiagi-
nation, while others have looked upon it as a
real tradition. Various attempts have been
nade to identify the island. The Canary Islands,
the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the American
Continent have all been thought to be the land
in question. Consult Volquardsen, Ueber die
Ml/then hfi Plato (Schleswig, 1871).
ATLAN'TIS. The Antediluvian World. A
work by Ignatius Donnelly (1882).
ATLAN'TOSAU'RUS. See Titanosaurus.
AT'LAS (Ar., satin, smooth, from talasa, to
make smooth). The name given to a silk satin
manufactured in India and other Eastern coun-
tries, and at one time largely imported by Euro-
pean merchants. This material was w-rought
with threads of gold or silver, was either striped
or flowered, and was woven in the most skillful
manner, though it lacked the lustre of French
silks.
ATLAS (so named from its sustaining the
globe of the head, as the giant Atlas sustains
the vault of heaven). That piece of the human
vertebral column which is nearest to the skull ;
in other words, the first cervical vertebra. It
may be known from the other six by its being
without a body or spinous process, by its being a
mere irregular bony ring, partly divided into
two unequal parts by a constriction; this divi-
sion in the recent subject is completed by a liga-
ment, the space in front being occupied by the
tooth-like process of the second cei-vieal verte-
bra, 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 atlas, with the occipital bone, forms the
joint on which the head moves in nodding, and
turns on the pivot of the second cervical verte-
bra when we look from side to side.
ATLAS. A mountain system of northern Africa, extending in a southwest and northeast direction from the western end of Morocco to the eastern coast of Tunis, in the main parallel with the coast of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean (Map: Africa, D 1). It is generally divided into two parts, the Moroccan and the Algerian Atlas. The former comprises three chains, the Great Atlas in the middle, the
