e to the reader the almost marvelous manner in which
faults were detected in the line hundreds of miles from the shore, and
how the cable was successfully hauled in and the damage repaired. All
went well until twelve hundred miles of cable had been paid out, and the
ship was but six hundred miles from the shores of Newfoundland, when the
cable broke again and plunged into the sea.

Mr. Canning, the engineer in charge, was dismayed, but not disheartened.
For nine days the ship hung around the spot grappling for the cable, in
the hope of raising it, and sinking its grapnels for this purpose to a
depth of two miles. The cable was caught several times, but the rope
which held the grapnel broke each time, and the precious coil fell back
again into the deep. At length, having marked the place where the cable
was lost with buoys, the ship put back for England, and the enterprise
was abandoned for that year.

Though unsuccessful in carrying the cable across the ocean, this
expedition was by no means a failure. Its results are thus summed up by
the officers in charge of it:

1. It was proved by the expedition of 1858 that a submarine
telegraph cable could be laid between Ireland and Newfoundland, and
messages transmitted through the same.

By the expedition of 1865 it has been fully demonstrated:

2. That the insulation of a cable improves very much after its
submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its
conducting power is considerably increased thereby.

3. That the steamship "Great Eastern," from her size and constant
steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint use
of paddles and screw, renders it safe to lay an Atlantic cable in
any weather.

4. That in a depth of over two miles four attempts were made to
grapple the cable. In three of them the cable was caught by the
grapnel, and in the other the grapnel was fouled by the chain
attached to it.

5. That the paying-out machinery used on board the Great Eastern
worked perfectly, and can be confidently relied on for laying
cables across the Atlantic.

6. That with the improved telegraphic instruments for long
submarine lines, a speed of more than eight words per minute can be
obtained through such a cable as the present Atlantic one between
Ireland and Newfoundland, as the amount of slack actually paid out
did not