THE BRAZILIAN CABLE cxi 



VI. 



And here to make an end are a few random bits about the 

 cruise to Pernambuco : 



' Plymouth, June 21, 1873. I have been down to the seashore 

 and smelt the salt sea and like it ; and I have seen the Hooper 

 pointing her great bow sea-ward, while light smoke rises from 

 her funnels telling that the fires are being lighted ; and sorry as 

 I am to be without you, something inside me answers to the 

 call to be off and doing. 



1 Lalla Rookh. Plymouth, June 22. We have been a little 

 cruise in the yacht over to the Eddystone lighthouse, and my 

 sea-legs seem very well on. Strange how alike all these starts 

 are first on shore, steaming hot days with a smell of bone-dust 

 and tar and salt water ; then the little puffing panting steam- 

 launch that bustles out across a port with green woody sides, 

 little yachts sliding about, men-of-war training-ships, and then 

 a great big black hulk of a thing with a mass of smaller vessels 

 sticking to it like parasites ; and that is one's home being coaled. 

 Then comes the Champagne lunch where every one says all that is 

 polite to everyone else, and then the uncertainty when to start. 

 So far as we know now, we are to start to-morrow morning at 

 daybreak ; letters that come later are to be sent to Pernambuco 

 by first mail. . . . My father has sent me the heartiest sort of 

 Jack Tar's cheer. 



' 8.8. Hooper. Off Funchal, June 29. Here we are off 

 Madeira at seven o'clock in the morning. Thomson has been 

 sounding with his special toy ever since half-past three (1087 

 fathoms of water). I have been watching the day break, and 

 long jagged islands start into being out of the dull night. We 

 are still some miles from land ; but the sea is calmer than Loch 

 Eil often was, and the big Hooper rests very contentedly after a 

 pleasant voyage and favourable breezes. I have not been able to 

 do any real work except the testing [of the cable] for though not 

 sea-sick, I get a little giddy when I try to think on board. . . . 

 The ducks have just had their daily souse and are quacking and 



