ut cutting it.

[Illustration]

It is a very intricate knot that an old sailor cannot untie, and the
old sailors on the "Great Eastern" twisted and untwisted coil after
coil until they succeeded in untying this one. The insulation remained
perfect, and in a few hours all was right again. The accident caused
much ill foreboding, however, as it showed how slight an occurrence
might bring the expedition to a disastrous end.

On July 27, after a voyage of fifteen days, the "Great Eastern"
finished her work, and her part of the cable was attached to the
American shore-end, which had been laid by another vessel. Some of you
will remember the rejoicings in the United States over the event. It
surpassed all other achievements of the age, and equaled the invention
of the telegraph itself.

Thus, after infinite labor and repeated failures, the brave men who
undertook the work accomplished it. A year before, their third cable
had broken in mid-ocean, and it was now proposed to "grapple" for it.
The "Great Eastern" was fitted out with apparatus, which may be likened
to an enormous fishing-hook and line, and was sent to the spot where
the treasure had been lost. The line was of hemp interwoven with wire.
Page 328 shows a section of it. Twice the cable was seized and brought
almost to the surface. Twice it slipped from the disappointed
fishermen, but the third time it was secured. It was then united with
the cable on board, which was "paid out" until the great steamer again
reached Newfoundland, and a second telegraph-wire united the two
continents.

The scene on board as the black line appeared above water was exciting
beyond description. It was first taken to the testing-room, and a
signal intended for Valentia was sent over it, to prove whether or not
it was perfect throughout its whole length. If it had proved to be
imperfect, all the labor spent upon it would have been lost. The
electricians waited breathlessly for an answer. The clerk in the
signal-house at Valentia was drowsy when their message came, and
disbelieved his ears. Many disinterested people, and even some of the
promoters of the cable, did not think it possible to recover a wire
that had sunk in thousands of fathoms of water. But the clerk in the
little station connected with the shore-end of the cable of 1865
suddenly found himself in communication with a vessel situated in the
middle of the Atlantic.

The delay aggravated the anxious watchers on the ship,