of ice.

[Illustration: SECTION OF THE GRAPPLING LINE.]

What is called the shore-end of the cable--_i.e._, that part nearest
the shore, which is thicker than the rest--was first laid by a smaller
steamer. It extended from Valentia to a point twenty-eight miles at
sea. Here it was buoyed, until the great ship arrived. On a wet day in
July, 1866, it was joined with the main cable on board the "Great
Eastern," and on the same day that vessel started on her voyage to
Newfoundland.

[Illustration: SECTIONS OF CABLES (REDUCED). 1. Main cable of 1858.
1a. Shore end, abandoned cable of 1858. 2. Main cable of 1866.
2a. Shore-end, recovered cable of 1865. 3. Shore end of cable of 1866.]

It may seem a simple matter to distribute or "pay out" the cable, but
in practice it is exceedingly difficult. Twenty men are stationed in
the tank from which it is issuing, each dressed in a canvas suit,
without pockets, and in boots without nails. Their duty is to ease each
coil as it passes out of the tank, and to give notice of the marks
painted on the cable one mile apart. Near the entrance of the tank it
runs over a grooved wheel and along an iron trough until it reaches
that part of the deck where the "paying out" machine is placed. The
latter consists of six grooved wheels, each provided with a smaller
wheel, called a "jockey," placed against the upper side of the groove
so as to press against the cable as it goes through, and retard or help
its progress. These six wheels and their jockeys are themselves
controlled by brakes, and after it has been embraced by them the cable
winds round a "drum" four times. The drum is another wheel, four feet
in diameter and nine inches deep, which is also controlled by powerful
brakes; and from it the cable passes over another grooved wheel before
it gets to the "dynamometer" wheel. The dynamometer is an instrument
which shows the exact degree of the strain on the cable, and the wheel
attached to it rises and falls as the strain is greater or less. Thence
the cable is sent over another deeply grooved wheel into the sea.

You will remember what I said about insulation,--how a tiny hole in the
gutta-percha would allow the electricity to escape. On deck there is a
small house, which is filled with delicate scientific instruments. As
the cable is paid out, it is tested here. If a wire or a nail or a
smaller thing is driven through it, and the insulation is spoiled, an
instrument called the galvanometer