e. Bad news from the cable. Number four has
given in some portion of the last ten miles: the fault in number three
is still at the bottom of the sea; number two is now the only good
wire; and the hold is getting in such a mess, through keeping bad bits
out and cutting for splicing and testing, that there will be great
risk in paying out. The cable is somewhat strained in its ascent from
one mile below us; what it will be when we get to two miles is a
problem we may have to determine.

"9 P.M.--A most provoking, unsatisfactory day. We have done nothing.
The wind and sea have both risen. Too little notice has been given to
the telegraphists who accompany this expedition; they had to leave all
their instruments at Lyons in order to arrive at Bona in time; our
tests are therefore of the roughest, and no one really knows where the
faults are. Mr. L---- in the morning lost much time; then he told us,
after we had been inactive for about eight hours, that the fault in
number three was within six miles; and at six o'clock in the evening,
when all was ready for a start to pick up these six miles, he comes
and says there must be a fault about thirty miles from Bona! By this
time it was too late to begin paying out to-day, and we must lie here
moored in a thousand fathoms till light to-morrow morning. The ship
pitches a good deal, but the wind is going down.

"_June 13, Sunday._

"The wind has not gone down however. It now (at 10.30) blows a pretty
stiff gale, the sea has also risen; and the _Elba's_ bows rise and
fall about 9 feet. We make twelve pitches to the minute, and the poor
cable must feel very sea-sick by this time. We are quite unable to do
anything, and continue riding at anchor in one thousand fathoms, the
engines going constantly so as to keep the ship's bows up to the
cable, which by this means hangs nearly vertical and sustains no
strain but that caused by its own weight and the pitching of the
vessel. We were all up at four, but the weather entirely forbade work
for to-day, so some went to bed and most lay down, making up our
leeway, as we nautically term our loss of sleep. I must say Liddell is
a fine fellow and keeps his patience and temper wonderfully; and yet
how he does fret and fume about trifles at home! This wind has blown
now for thirty-six hours, and yet we have telegrams from Bona to say
the sea there is as calm as a mirror. I