646 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



soft with recent rains that you would sink to your ankles in it. 

 Well, it was up this road we had to march with the cable ; and 

 a splendid time we had. It was but reasonable to suppose that 

 the three captains who headed the procession would certainly 

 pick out the best parts and give us the advantage of the 

 stepping-stones; but it appeared all the same to them; and 

 they plunged into the boggiest and dirtiest parts with a reck- 

 lessness and indifference that satisfied us they were about the 

 worst pilots we could have had on land, despite their well-known 

 abilities as navigators. 



"This memorable procession started at a quarter to six 

 o'clock, and arrived at the telegraph station about twenty 

 minutes after. The ascent of the hill was the worst part of the 

 journey; but when we got to the top the scene which opened 

 before us would have repaid us for a journey of twenty miles 

 over a still worse road. There beneath us lay the harbor, shut 

 in by mountains, except at the entrance from Trinity Bay; and 

 there, too, lay the steamers of the two greatest maritime nations 

 of the world. On every side lies an unbroken wilderness, and, if 

 we except the telegraph station, at which we will soon arrive, 

 not a single habitation to tell that man has ever lived here. 



" Never was such a remarkable scene presented since the 

 world began. Even now, at the very point of its realization, it 

 does not seem as if the work in which we have been engaged 

 has been accomplished. The continuity, however, without 

 which the cable would be utterly valueless, is as perfect now 

 as it ever was. Mr. Laws and Mr. De Santy, the two chief elec- 

 tricians who have accompanied us from England, have 6 tasted' 

 the current, and about a dozen others at the head of the proces- 

 sion have done the same thing. The writer himself is a witness 

 on this point, and will never forget the singular acid taste which 

 it had. Some received a pretty strong shock, — so strong that 

 they willingly resigned the chance of repeating the experiment. 



" On the arrival of the procession the cable is brought up to 



