o and a half turns of the
cable round it immediately above the tail."

"Pooh! boh!" exclaimed uncle Rik, "I don't believe it."

"But I do, uncle," returned Sam, as he opened his sixth egg, "for I read
the account of it in one of the engineering journals, in which dates and
names were given. The steamer was the Amber Witch, commanded by Captain
Bishop, and the staff of operators were under Mr Harry Mance. The body
of the huge creature was found to be rapidly decomposing, the jaws
falling away as it reached the surface, and sharks had evidently been
devouring it. The tail, which measured twelve feet across, was covered
with barnacles at the extremities."

"But how could it have entangled itself so?" asked Mrs Langley.

"They suppose that at the time the whale had found a part of the cable
hanging in a deep loop over a submarine precipice, and, thinking the
chance a good one no doubt for scraping off the barnacles and other
parasites that annoy whales very much, had probably twisted the cable
round him with a flip of his tail. Anyhow, the fact is unquestionable
that it held him fast until he was fished up dead by the electricians
and engineers."

"How strange!" murmured Letta.

"It is indeed," responded Robin, "the most extraordinary case I ever
heard of, though cables are subject to many singular accidents. I
remember one case of accident to the cable across the river Yar, in the
Isle of Wight. A bullock fell from the deck of a vessel, and, in its
struggles, caught the cable and broke it."

"I have read of several very singular cases," said Sam, "in which cables
have been attacked and damaged by inhabitants of the sea. The Cuba and
Florida cable was once damaged by the bite of some large fish, and a
similar accident happened to the China cable. In the Malta-Alexandria
cable, a piece of the core from which the sheathing had been worn was
found to have been bitten by a shark, and pieces of the teeth were found
sticking in the gutta-percha."

"I thought it was to the Singapore cable that that happened," said
Robin.

"No, but something similar happened to it. That cable was laid in
December. In the following March a stoppage occurred. The fault was
spotted at 200 miles from Singapore. When hauled up, the cable was
found to have been pierced, and bits of crushed bone were sticking in
the hole. The piece was cut out and sent to Mr Frank Buckland, who,
after long and careful examination, came to the concl