uth gives me heavenly
pleasure--for which I thank Heaven and you, too, who are my heaven on
earth.'

During the summer he enjoyed another telegraph cruise in the
Mediterranean, a sea which for its classical memories, its lovely
climate, and diversified scenes, is by far the most interesting in the
world. This time the Elba was to lay a cable from the Greek islands of
Syra and Candia to Egypt. Cable-laying is a pleasant mode of travel.
Many of those on board the ship are friends and comrades in former
expeditions, and all are engaged in the same venture. Some have seen a
good deal of the world, both in and out of the beaten track; they have
curious 'yarns to spin,' and useful hints or scraps of worldly wisdom to
bestow. The voyage out is like a holiday excursion, for it is only
the laying that is arduous, and even that is lightened by excitement.
Glimpses are got of hide-away spots, where the cable is landed, perhaps.
on the verge of the primeval forest or near the port of a modern city,
or by the site of some ruined monument of the past. The very magic of
the craft and its benefit to the world are a source of pleasure to the
engineer, who is generally made much of in the distant parts he has come
to join. No doubt there are hardships to be borne, sea-sickness, broken
rest, and anxiety about the work--for cables are apt suddenly to fail,
and the ocean is treacherous; but with all its drawbacks this happy
mixture of changing travel and profitable labour is very attractive,
especially to a young man.

The following extracts from letters to his wife will illustrate the
nature of the work, and also give an idea of Jenkin's clear and graphic
style of correspondence:--May 14.--'Syra is semi-eastern. The pavement,
huge shapeless blocks sloping to a central gutter; from this base
two-storeyed houses, sometimes plaster, many-coloured, sometimes
rough-hewn marble, rise, dirty and ill-finished, to straight, plain,
flat roofs; shops guiltless of windows, with signs in Greek letters;
dogs, Greeks in blue, baggy, Zouave breeches and a fez, a few
narghilehs, and a sprinkling of the ordinary continental shop-boys.
In the evening I tried one more walk in Syra with A----, but in
vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to spend money, the first effort
resulting in singing DOODAH to a passing Greek or two, the second in
spending--no, in making A---- spend--threepence on coffee for three.'

Canea Bay, in Candia (or Crete), which they reached