e. On the breaking down
of the cable he lapsed into his former obscurity. I asked him if he
had ever seen Holmes's production. He replied that he had received a
copy of "The Atlantic Monthly" containing it from the poet himself,
accompanied by a note saying that he might find in it something
of interest. He had been overwhelmed with invitations to continue
his journey from Newfoundland to the United States and lecture on
the cable, but was sensible enough to decline them.

The rest of the story of the telegraphic longitude is short.
The first news which de Sauty had to give me was that the cable was
broken,--just where, he did not know, and would not be able soon to
discover. After the break was located, an unknown period would be
required to raise the cable, find the place, and repair the breach.
The weather, on the day of the eclipse, was more than half cloudy,
so that I did not succeed in making observations of such value as
would justify my waiting indefinitely for the repair of the cable,
and the project of determining the longitude had to be abandoned.

XI

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE

We went from Gibraltar to Berlin in January by way of Italy.
The Mediterranean is a charming sea in summer, but in winter is
a good deal like the Atlantic. The cause of the blueness of its
water is not completely settled; but its sharing this color with
Lake Geneva, which is tinged with detritus from the shore, might
lead one to ascribe it to substances held in solution. The color is
noticeable even in the harbor of Malta, to which we had a pleasant
though not very smooth passage of five days.

Here was our first experience of an Italian town of a generation
ago. I had no sooner started to take a walk than a so-called
guide, who spoke what he thought was English, got on my track,
and insisted on showing me everything. If I started toward a shop,
he ran in before me, invited me in, asked what I would like to buy,
and told the shopman to show the gentleman something. I could not
get rid of him till I returned to the hotel, and then he had the
audacity to want a fee for his services. I do not think he got it.
Everything of interest was easily seen, and we only stopped to take
the first Italian steamer to Messina. We touched at Syracuse and
Catania, but did not land.

Etna, from the sea, is one of the grandest sights I ever saw.
Its snow-covered cone seems to rise on all sides out of the sea
or the plain, and t