ary without any further interference. I have a nice
cabin, with plenty of room for my legs in my berth, and have slept two
nights like a top. Then we have the ladies' cabin set apart as an
engineer's office, and I think this decidedly the nicest place in the
ship: 35 ft. x 20 ft. broad--four tables, three great mirrors, plenty
of air, and no heat from the funnels, which spoil the great
dining-room. I saw a whole library of books on the walls when here
last, and this made me less anxious to provide light literature; but
alas, to-day I find that they are every one Bibles or Prayer-books.
Now one cannot read many hundred Bibles.... As for the motion of the
ship, it is not very much, but 'twill suffice. Thomson shook hands and
wished me well. I _do_ like Thomson.... Tell Austin that the _Great
Eastern_ has six masts and four funnels. When I get back I will make a
little model of her for all the chicks, and pay out cotton reels....
Here we are at 4.20 at Brest. We leave probably to-morrow morning.

"_July 12, Great Eastern._--Here as I write we run our last course for
the buoy at the St. Pierre shore-end. It blows and lightens, and our
good ship rolls, and buoys are hard to find; but we must soon now
finish our work, and then this letter will start for home....
Yesterday we were mournfully groping our way through the wet grey fog,
not at all sure where we were, with one consort lost and the other
faintly answering the roar of our great whistle through the mist. As
to the ship which was to meet us, and pioneer us up the deep channel,
we did not know if we should come within twenty miles of her; when
suddenly up went the fog, out came the sun, and there, straight
ahead, was the _Wm. Cory_, our pioneer, and a little dancing boat, the
_Gulnare_, sending signals of welcome with many-coloured flags. Since
then we have been steaming in a grand procession; but now at 2 A.M.
the fog has fallen, and the great roaring whistle calls up the distant
answering notes all around us. Shall we or shall we not find the buoy?

"_July 13._--All yesterday we lay in the damp dripping fog, with
whistles all round and guns firing so that we might not bump up
against one another. This little delay has let us get our reports into
tolerable order. We are now, at seven o'clock, getting the cable end
again, with the main cable buoy close to us."

_A telegram of July 20._--"I have recei