FROM PORTSMOUTH TO TENERTFFE. 
O 
O 
suggestive of the first scene of “ The Tempest ”— the groans of creaking timbers, the howling of 
the gale through the rigging, the hoarse voice of the commanding officer trying to outroar the 
storm, the screech of the boatswain’s whistle, and the tramp of many feet overhead. Christmas 
Day still found us in the same plight about a hundred miles to the westward of the Scilly 
Islands, now breasting the gale under steam, now driven back towards the land by the 
unrelenting south-wester. Most of the patients had sufficiently recovered to share in the 
festivities of the day, though they would have preferred to celebrate them amid happier 
surroundings. During the following days we were able to shape our course towards the 
south, but when, on the morning of the 27th, I stepped on deck to try my newly acquired 
“ sea-legs,” I found the ship still surrounded by a chaos of green waves, whose foaming crests, 
blown into cloud-like spray by the force of the wind, fell back in impotent rage from the 
stout sides of the “ Challenger.” The dreary scene, now and then illumined by a few rays 
from the pale disc of the sun half-hidden behind the scudding clouds, was completed by the 
appearance of a ship’s hull bottom up—to judge from the floating wreckage, probably some 
overladen timber-ship sunk by one of the numerous squalls we had encountered. Thus did 
we fully experience the terrors of the Bay of Biscay, that most dreaded of seas. 
On the 30th the light of Cape Finisterre came in sight, and we recalled the fate 
uf the unfortunate Captain, lost at a point not far from our track. We were now hourly 
approaching latitudes where nature is “more kind,” and advantage was taken of the 
improved state of the weather to make our first experiments in sounding and dredging. 
The feasibility of lowering a dredge to a depth of over 1000 or even 2000 fathoms, dragging 
it for some distance along the bottom of the sea, and bringing it and its contents safely to the 
surface, had already been demonstrated by the experiments made a few years before on board 
H.M.S. “Porcupine;” but some uncertainty was still felt as to how far a vessel of larger 
dimensions would lend itself to a performance sufficiently critical to tax the skill and the patience 
of the most practised operator. The success of the whole expedition absolutely depending upon 
the result of these first attempts, it was a subject of considerable gratification, to those more 
immediately interested, to find no serious obstacles to a thorough exploration of the abysses of 
the ocean. On a subsequent memorable occasion, the sounding-apparatus and thermometers 
weie lowered to a depth of over five miles, and successfully recovered, together with a sample 
of the bottom. The first days of the year 1873 were spent in repeating these experiments with 
varying results. 
LISBON. 
New Year’s Day found us about forty miles to the westward of Cape Mondego, 
and the following day we neared the Burlings Islands off Cape Carvoeiro. Though we 
had been only a fortnight at sea, we had received such rough handling that the prospect 
of touching land was hailed with unmixed satisfaction. It was on a fine breezy morning that 
the ridge of Cmtra appeared above the horizon, and shortly after entering the Tagus we cast 
anchor in front of Lisbon. 
