148 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



and there was a road to Fort Genois, only a bridge 

 had been carried away, &c. At last I got off, and 

 we rowed round to Fort Genois, where my men had 

 put up a capital gipsy tent with sails, and there 

 was my big board and Thomson's number 5 in great 

 glory. I soon came to the conclusion there was a 

 break. Two of my faithful Cagliaritans slept all 

 night in the little tent, to guard it and my precious 

 instruments ; and the sea, which was rather 

 rough, silenced my Frenchmen. 



' Next day I went on with my experiments, 

 whilst a boat grappled for the cable a little way 

 from shore and buoyed it where the Elba could 

 get hold. I brought all back to the Elba, tried 

 my machinery and was all ready for a start next 

 morning. But the wretched coal had not come 

 yet ; Government permission from Algiers to be 

 got ; lighters, men, baskets, and I know not what 

 forms to be got or got through — and everybody 

 asleep ! Coals or no coals, I was determined to 

 start next morning ; and start we did at four in 

 the morning, picked up the buoy with our deck 

 engine, popped the cable across a boat, tested the 

 wires to make sure the fault was not behind us, 

 and started picking up at 11. Everything worked 

 admirably, and about 2 p.m. in came the fault. 

 There is no doubt the cable was broken by coral 

 fishers ; twice they have had it up, to their own 

 knowledge. 



