It was the month of October. The fine season was swiftly returning. Nature was reviving; and among the evergreen foliage of the coniferæ which formed the border of the wood, already appeared the young leaves of the banksias, deodars, and other trees. It may be remembered that Gideon Spilett and Herbert had, at different times, taken photographic views of Lincoln Island. Now, on the 17th of this month of October, towards three o'clock in the afternoon, Herbert, enticed by the charms of the sky, thought of reproducing Union Bay, which was opposite to Prospect Heights, from Cape Mandible to Claw Cape. The horizon was beautifully clear, and the sea, undulating under a soft breeze, was as calm as the waters of a lake, sparkling here and there under the sun's rays. The apparatus had been placed at one of the windows of the dining-room at Granite House, and consequently overlooked the shore and the bay. Herbert proceeded as he was accustomed to do, and the negative obtained, he went away to fix it by means of the chemicals deposited in a dark nook of Granite House. Returning to the bright light, and examining it well, Herbert perceived on his negative an almost imperceptible little spot on the sea horizon. He endeavoured to make it disappear by reiterated washing, but could not accomplish it. "It is a flaw in the glass," he thought. And then he had the curiosity to examine this flaw with a strong magnifier which he unscrewed from one of the telescopes. But he had scarcely looked at it, when he uttered a cry, and the glass almost fell from his hands. Immediately running to the room in which Cyrus Harding then was, he extended the negative and magnifier towards the engineer, pointing out the little spot. Harding examined it; then seizing his telescope he rushed to the window. The telescope, after having slowly swept the horizon, at last stopped on the looked-for spot, and Cyrus Harding lowering it, pronounced one word only,-- "A vessel!" And in fact a vessel was in sight, off Lincoln Island! THE TEMPLE PRESS, PRINTERS, LETCHWORTH TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES 1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. 2. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break. 3. Due to the poor scan quality of the original, text was found to be missing at some places. Most prominent were the missing periods which have been added for the sake of clarity. Also few missing punctuation marks like commas, quotes, etc. have been added where obvious need was felt. Apart from that, some missing text has also been added after verification from other sources. 4. The words manoeuvred & manoeuvre have oe ligature in the original.