she carries 3000 tons
more dead-weight than when she started with the Atlantic cable in 1865."

At that moment there was a lull of consternation round the
breakfast-table, for a drumming upon metal was heard! For one instant
there was a gaze of doubt round the table. Then they rose _en masse_;
cups were upset, and chairs thrown over; the cabin was crossed at racing
speed,--Captain Halpin leading--the stair-case surmounted, and a rush
made to the testing-room.

There all was quiet and orderly; the operators placidly pursuing their
labours, working out their calculations, or watching the tell-tale spot
of light on the scale, and all looking up in silent surprise at the
sudden hubbub round their door. It was a false alarm, caused by the
steady dripping of a shower-bath on its metal bottom! That was all, but
it was sufficient to prove how intensely men were on the _qui vive_.

It was a wonderful scene, the deck of the Great Eastern--
incomprehensible by those who have not seen it. The cabins, offices,
workshops, and machinery formed a continuous line of buildings up the
centre of the vessel's deck, dividing it into two streets an eighth of a
mile long. At the end of one of these were the wheels and drums running
from the top of the aft-tank to the stern; and between them and the two
thoroughfares were wooden houses which shut them out from view. There
was a farmyard also, where cattle were regularly turned out for
exercise; there were goats which were allowed to go free about the
decks, and chickens which took the liberty of doing so, sometimes,
without leave; there were parrots being taken home by the sailors which
shrieked their opinions noisily; and there were numerous monkeys, which
gambolled in mischievous fun, or sat still, the embodiment of ludicrous
despair; while, intermingling with the general noise could be heard the
rattle of the paying-out wheels, as the cable passed with solemn dignity
and unvarying persistency over the stern into the sea, it seemed almost
unheeded, so perfect and self-acting was the machinery; but it was,
nevertheless, watched by keen sleepless eyes--as the mouse is watched by
the cat--night and day.

The perfection not only achieved but expected, was somewhat absurdly
brought out by the electrician in the cable-house at Bombay, who one day
complained to the operators on board the Great Eastern that the reply to
one of his questions had been from three to twelve seconds late! It