"The strength of the girders which carry the bearing of the entire apparatus, and which to the eye of a person unskilled in the practical working of this description of machinery may seem at first to be unduly ponderous, was found to contribute greatly to the easy motion and satisfactory steadiness of this most important agent in the success of the undertaking. So soon as the _Agamemnon_ had passed the track of the Submarine Company's cable between Dover and Calais in order to avoid the possibility of its being injured by the laying or hauling up of another line at right angles to it, the experiments commenced. A 13-inch shell was attached to the end of a spare coil of the Atlantic cable for the purpose of sinking it rapidly with a strain upon it to the bottom, and was then cast into the sea, drawing after it a sufficient quantity of slack to enable it to take hold of the ground, and so set the machinery in motion. "The paying out then commenced at the rate of two, three, and four knots an hour respectively. The ship was then stopped, and the cable was hauled up from the bottom of the sea with great facility by connecting the small engine to the driving pinion geared to the sheaves. When the end was brought up to the surface it was found that the shell had broken away from the loop by which it had been fastened for the purpose of lowering it. "The exterior coating of tar had been completely rubbed off by being drawn through the sandy bottom of the sea, and attached to the iron coating of the cable were some weeds and several small crabs which came up with it to the surface. "On the following day a length of cable was run out and hauled in with perfect success opposite the Isle of Wight. "The speed was increased in this case to four knots. During the afternoon of the same day a length was run out, having fastened to the end of it a log of timber, and having been towed with a mile and a half of cable, was coiled in again with success. "On Wednesday about half-way between the Land's End and the coast of Ireland another length was run out at the rate of six and a half knots per hour, and subsequently hauled in. The _Agamemnon_ then steered for Cork, and reached Queenstown Harbor at four o'clock on Thursday morning, all on board being more than ever satisfied at the success of the enterprise." The New York _Herald_ of August 28th published a letter from its special correspondent on board the _Niagara_, and from it these extracts are made: