he himself did with the Bona cable: thus edited the letters speak for
themselves, and will fail to interest none who love adventure or
activity. Addressed as they were to her whom he called his "dear
engineering pupil," they give a picture of his work so clear that a
child may understand, and so attractive that I am half afraid their
publication may prove harmful, and still further crowd the ranks of a
profession already overcrowded. But their most engaging quality is the
picture of the writer; with his indomitable self-confidence and courage,
his readiness in every pinch of circumstance or change of plan, and his
ever fresh enjoyment of the whole web of human experience, nature,
adventure, science, toil and rest, society and solitude. It should be
borne in mind that the writer of these buoyant pages was, even while he
wrote, harassed by responsibility, stinted in sleep, and often
struggling with the prostration of sea-sickness. To this last enemy,
which he never overcame, I have omitted, in my search after
condensation, a good many references; if they were all left, such was
the man's temper, they would not represent one hundredth part of what he
suffered, for he was never given to complaint. But indeed he had met
this ugly trifle, as he met every thwart circumstance of life, with a
certain pleasure of pugnacity; and suffered it not to check him, whether
in the exercise of his profession or the pursuit of amusement.

I

_"Birkenhead. April 18, 1858._

"Well, you should know, Mr. ---- having a contract to lay down a
submarine telegraph from Sardinia to Africa failed three times in the
attempt. The distance from land to land is about 140 miles. On the
first occasion, after proceeding some 70 miles, he had to cut the
cable--the cause I forget; he tried again, same result; then picked up
about 20 miles of the lost cable, spliced on a new piece, and very
nearly got across that time, but ran short of cable, and, when but a
few miles off Galita in very deep water, had to telegraph to London
for more cable to be manufactured and sent out whilst he tried to
stick to the end: for five days, I think, he lay there sending and
receiving messages, but, heavy weather coming on, the cable parted and
Mr. ---- went home in despair--at least I should think so.

"He then applied to those eminent engineers, R. S. Newall and Co., who
made and laid down a cable for him last autumn--Fleeming Jenkin (at