ASSUME COMMAND OF THE ENTERPRISE. 27 



Oil the morning of the 30th the gale broke, and we 

 proceeded under steam. The sea was so rough that we 

 were unable to make more than four knots an hour with 

 the necessarily limited allowance of coal. Cape Town 

 was still 120 miles distant. 



During the night the wind and sea subsided, but a 

 fog set in which at times was very dense. 



On the 31st sounded in no fathoms, lat. 34° 10' S., 

 long. 18° ii' E. ; sand and black specks. The weather 

 was still foggy, but the nearer we approached land the 

 thinner the fog became. At last Table Rock loomed 

 up through the mists, and at 10.18 a.m. the ship was 

 anchored under the breakwater in Table Bay, Cape 

 Town, and the British flag saluted with twenty-one guns. 



We had been three months and three days from 

 Norfolk, Va., and forty-nine days from the Cape de 

 Verdes. Only three tofis of coal were left in the bunkers. 

 Not a single bag of bread remained, and but one or two 

 barrels of beef and pork. From the Cape de Verde 

 Islands to Cape Town we had sailed 5608 miles follow- 

 ing the route of sailing-vessels, had taken 53 casts, 41 of 

 which were between two and three and one-half (2 and 

 3^) statute miles in depth. The last 44 casts were taken 

 without loss of wire or any accident. 



In 1876, H. M. S. Challenger ran a line of sound- 

 ings between Tristan d'Acunha and the Ascension Isl- 

 ands, demonstratino^ the existence of a submarine rido-e 

 connecting those two islands. The varying depths 

 found between 28° west longitude and Cape Town 



