单项选择题

Oceanography has always been regarded as the science of our oceans mixing geology, biology, chemistry, and physics to unveil the secrets of our seas. Scientists once defined oceanography as "the application of all sciences to the study of the sea". Before the nineteenth century, very few scientists showed an interest in the sea. Newton, a well-known scientist, explored some aspects of it theoretically in his works at one time, but later he was unwilling to have a further study on it.
The sea was remote for the majority of the people, and except early travelers who traveled among continents or others who earned a living by undersea living creatures, it was not necessary to raise questions about it, let alone to ask what lay beneath the surface. Just when Europe and America proposed to lay a telegraph cable between them, the question "what is at the bottom of the seas" had to be answered for the first time with some commercial links. The engineers had to observe and measure the depth profile of the route to estimate the length of the cable to be produced.
Thanks to Maury, the US Navy, the Atlantic Telegraph Company acquired information on this matter in 1853. In the 1840s, Maury had been assigned to encourage voyages during which soundings (测声) could be used to investigate the depths of the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well. Later, some of his findings drew much attention and gained popularity in his book The Physical Geography of the Sea. The cable was laid, but the connection was not made permanent and reliable until 1866. At the early attempts, the cable failed and when it was taken out for repairs, it was found to be covered with living growths. The fact once refuted scientific argument at that time that there was no life in the deeper parts of the sea.
Oceanography was gradually developed in next few years. In 1872 Thomson led a scientific expedition(考查) lasting for four years and brought back thousands of samples from the sea. Scientists were devoted to the classification and analysis of these samples for years and produced a five-volume report with the last volume published in 1895.

The reason why Europe and America proposed to lay a telegraph cable was largely due to ().

点击查看答案&解析