"At length all the preparations connected with the final departure of this great telegraphic expedition are completed. On Wednesday the _Amethyst_ left the telegraph works with the last length of 245 miles of cable on board, and on Saturday the operation of coiling this in was begun. This work will probably last till the 22d inst., when the _Great Eastern_ will have in her as nearly as possible 7000 tons of cable, or, including the iron tanks which contain it and the water in which it is sunk, about 9000 tons in all. In addition to this she has already 7000 tons of coal on board, and 1500 tons more still to take in. This additional weight, however, will not be added till she leaves the Medway, which she will do on the morning of the 24th for the Nore, when the rest of the coals and special stores will be put aboard, and these will bring her mean draught down to 32½ feet. Her total weight, including engines, will then be rather over 21,000 tons--a stupendous mass for any ship to carry, but well within the capacity of the _Great Eastern_, of which the measurement tonnage is 24,000. Her way out from the Nore will be by Bullock's Channel, which the admiralty are having carefully buoyed to avoid all risk in these rather shallow waters. Before the following spring tides set in, about the 6th or 7th of July, the _Great Eastern_ will start for Valentia. There she is expected to arrive about the 9th or 10th, and there she will be met by the two ships of war appointed to convoy her--the _Terrible_ and the _Sphinx_. Both these vessels are being fitted with the best apparatus for deep-sea soundings; with buoys and means for buoying the end of the cable, if ever it should become necessary; and with Bollen's night-light naval signals, with which the _Great Eastern_ is likewise to be supplied. To avoid all chance of accident the big ship will not approach the Irish coast nearer than twenty or twenty-five miles, and her stay off Valentia will be limited to the time occupied in making a splice with the massive shore end which for a length of twenty-five miles from the coast will be laid previous to her arrival. This monstrous shore end, which is the heaviest and strongest piece of cable ever made, will be despatched in a few days, and be laid from the head of a sheltered inlet near Cahirciveen out to the distance we have stated, where the end will be buoyed and watched by the ships of war till the _Great Eastern_ herself comes up. Some idea of the strength and solidity of this great end may be guessed by the fact that its weight per mile is very little short of one-half the weight of an ordinary railway metal. For the shore end at Newfoundland only three miles are required, and this short length will be sent in the _Great Eastern_."