296 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



the articles of Australian produce ; each would have a 

 special and distinct signification. 



Australian telegrams may sometimes reach this 

 country by way of Marseilles, but my belief is that 

 they chiefly come through Porthcurno, in Cornwall. 

 Now, if there is a place more completely off the 

 track of mail-coach or railway than other places, it is 

 surely this same Porthcurno — a sandy cove, where 

 the Eastern Telegraph Company's cable lands, about 

 ten miles from Penzance. Here, as at Valentia, in 

 county Kerry, may wonders any day be seen. 



By means of the relay and the syphon recorder, 

 the company transmit telegrams from Porthcurno to 

 Melbourne, Victoria (13,695 miles distant, as the 

 wire runs), in about two hours. An express message 

 could be got through in less than half an hour, and 

 with the line clear from end to end a signal has been 

 known to pass between Cornwall and Victoria in five 

 minutes. There are seventeen stages or lengths of 

 telegraphic circuit ; at the termini of eight of them 

 the telegrams are repeated by human agency, at the 

 other eight they are passed onwards by 'translation,' 

 that is, by the automatic action of relays. 



The route of the Eastern Company's telegraph is 

 by sea from Porthcurno, via Gibraltar and Malta, 

 to Alexandria ; thence by land to Suez, by sea to 

 Bombay, across the peninsula to Madras ; by sea to 

 Penang, and thence by land and sea, via Singapore, to 

 Batavia, Port Darwin and Adelaide to Melbourne. 

 Two-thirds of the distance, approximately, are covered 



