THE GREEK ISLES xcv 



useful in all these cases ; but for no fortune would I be a doctor 

 to witness these scenes continually. Pain is a terrible thing. 

 Our work is done : the whole of the six-wire cable has been 

 recovered ; only a small part of the three-wire, but that wire was 

 bad and, owing to its twisted state, the value small. We may 

 therefore be said to have been very successful.' 



II. 



I have given this cruise nearly in full. From the notes, 

 unhappily imperfect, of two others, I will take only specimens ; 

 for in all there are features of similarity and it is possible to 

 have too much even of submarine telegraphy and the romance 

 of engineering. And first from the cruise of 1859 in the Greek 

 Islands and to Alexandria, take a few traits, incidents and 

 pictures. 



' May 10, 1859. 



' We had a fair wind and we did very well, seeing a little bit 

 of Cerig or Cythera, and lots of turtle-doves wandering about 

 over the sea and perching, tired and timid, in the rigging of our 

 little craft. Then Falconera, Antimilo and Milo, topped with 

 huge white clouds, barren, deserted, rising bold and mysterious 

 from the blue chafing sea ; Argentiera, Siphano, Scapho, Paros, 

 Antiparos and late at night Syra itself. Adam Bede in one 

 hand, a sketch-book in the other, lying on rugs under an awning, 

 I enjoyed a very pleasant day. 



' May 14. 



f Syra is semi-eastern. The pavement, huge shapeless blocks 

 sloping to a central gutter ; from this bare two-storeyed houses, 

 sometimes plaster many coloured, sometimes rough-hewn 

 marble, rise, dirty and ill-finished to straight, plain, flat roofs ; 

 shops guiltless of windows, with signs in Greek letters ; dogs, 

 Greeks in blue, baggy, Zouave breeches and a fez, a few narghi- 

 lehs and a sprinkling of the ordinary continental shopboys. In 



the evening I tried one more walk in Syra with A , but in 



vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to spend money \ the first 

 effort resulting in singing Doodah to a passing Greek or two, 



