THE CABLE LAID. 643 



miles with the greatest safety. This, however, as I have pre- 

 viously stated, cannot be done with old cable that has been 

 coiled so often as to have a tendency to kink ; and there is — as 

 has been already intimated — some of this kind which we shall be 

 obliged to pay out before landing. A signal signifying ' all well' 

 has been received from the Agamemnon, which must now be on 

 the point of landing her cable at Yalentia Bay, Ireland, which is 

 about sixteen hundred and forty miles from our present position." 



At eight o'clock in the evening, while the Niagara was pro- 

 ceeding up Trinity Bay and was yet some eighteen miles 

 distant from the landing-place, Mr. Field left the ship for the 

 purpose of visiting the telegraph station and sending a despatch 

 to the United States. " It was near two o'clock in the morn- 

 ing before he arrived at the beach ; and, as it was quite dark, he 

 had considerable difficulty in finding the path that led up to the 

 station. There was no house in sight, and the whole scene was 

 as dreary and as desolate as a wilderness at night could be. A 

 silence as of the grave reigned over every thing before him ; 

 while behind, at a distance of a mile, he could see the huge hull 

 of the Niagara looming up indistinctly through the gloom of 

 night, and the light of the lamps on her deck making the dark- 

 ness still darker and blacker by the contrast. He entered the 

 narrow road, and after a journey of what appeared to be twenty 

 miles be came in sight of the station, which stands about half a 

 mile from the beach. There^ was, however, no sign of life 

 there ; and the house in its stillness looked strangely in unison 

 with every thing around. It had a deserted look, as if it had 

 long since ceased to be the habitation of man. In vain he 

 looked for a door in the front ; but there was no entrance there. 

 He looked up at the windows, in the hope, perhaps, of being 

 able to enter by that way ; but the windows in the lower story 

 were beyond his reach ; and the house, having been partly built 

 on piles, had the appearance of being raised on stilts. A 

 detour of the establishment, however, led to the discovery of a 



