than the Bona one.--Here comes a break-down, and a bad one.

"_June 22._

"We got over it however; but it is a warning to me that my future
difficulties will arise from parts wearing out. Yesterday the cable
was often a lovely sight, coming out of the water one large
incrustation of delicate, net-like corals and long white curling
shells. No portion of the dirty black wires was visible; instead we
had a garland of soft pink with little scarlet sprays and white enamel
intermixed. All was fragile, however, and could hardly be secured in
safety; and inexorable iron crushed the tender leaves to atoms.--This
morning at the end of my watch, about 4 o'clock, we came to the buoys,
proving our anticipations right concerning the crossing of the cables.
I went to bed for four hours, and on getting up, found a sad mess. A
tangle of the six-wire cable hung to the grapnel, which had been left
buoyed, and the small cable had parted and is lost for the present.
Our hauling of the other day must have done the mischief.

"_June 23._

"We contrived to get the two ends of the large cable and to pick the
short end up. The long end, leading us seaward, was next put round the
drum, and a mile of it picked up; but then, fearing another tangle,
the end was cut and buoyed, and we returned to grapple for the
three-wire cable. All this is very tiresome for me. The buoying and
dredging are managed entirely by W----, who has had much experience in
this sort of thing; so I have not enough to do, and get very homesick.
At noon the wind freshened and the sea rose so high that we had to run
for land, and are once more this evening anchored at Chia.

"_June 24._

"The whole day spent in dredging without success. This operation
consists in allowing the ship to drift slowly across the line where
you expect the cable to be, while at the end of a long rope, fast
either to the bow or stern, a grapnel drags along the ground. This
grapnel is a small anchor, made like four pot-hooks tied back to back.
When the rope gets taut, the ship is stopped and the grapnel hauled up
to the surface in the hopes of finding the cable on its prongs.--I am
much discontented with myself for idly lounging about and reading
'Westward Ho!' for the second time, instead of taking to electricity
or picking up nautical information. I am uncommonly idle. The sea is
not quite so rough, but the we