THE LAYING OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 239 



steamers he could write as well and as indefatigably 

 as at home ; hut I douht if even he could do so in the 

 saloon of the Great Eastern. Independently of the 

 curiosity and anxiety naturally aroused hy the know- 

 ledge of what is going on above, there is noise enough 

 below to wake the very dead. The under saloon has 

 been turned into a carpenter's shop and a general 

 receptacle for timber and other ship-stores ; and it 

 would seem as if it was the sole duty of some half-a- 

 dozen noisy men (relieved at tunes by half-a-dozen 

 noisier men) to be continually lowering or lifting huge 

 logs of wood, which bump about, damaging the gild- 

 ing and tearing the pretty paper, to the evident dis- 

 comfort and horror of Mr Gooch, and also destroying 

 the repose of those who are either writing or reading, 

 or doing that for which reading is so good a cloak 

 namely, sleeping. In vain M. Despecher sets himself 

 down to get through the two tasks he was resolved 

 on performing during the voyage. The careful study 

 of ' La Vie de Jules Ce"sar,' and the ' Traite sur la 

 Telegraphic,' is utterly incompatible with the inces- 

 sant "Yow, ow, ows" of the men, and the sudden 

 and sharp. calls made on his attention by the logs of 

 wood so, slamming violently the pages of his be- 

 loved books, he flies to the piano, and from the lively 

 strains of the " Guards' Waltz " strives to produce a 

 counter-irritation. How Professor Thomson and ^Fr 

 Varley can fill sheet after sheet with abstruse theo- 

 rems and problems, illustrated by a whole army of 



