_Aug. 9th._--Our course was W.N.W. during the night; weather thick and rainy--strong southerly wind; sea running moderately high. At 6 a.m., having run by reckoning 35 miles from the buoy, our course was altered to E.S.E., so as to bring us back to it. The state of the weather delayed the artificers in their work. It rained heavily, the deck was by no means a horizontal plane, and it was doubtful if Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, using all possible diligence, could get tackle and machinery in order before the following forenoon, so that it was not necessary to make any great speed. The reputation of the ship was enhanced in the eyes and feelings of her passengers by the manner in which she had behaved in the undoubtedly high breeze and heavy sea. The former was admitted by sailors to be a “gale,” though they seemed to think the force of the wind was affected by the addition of the prefix “summer,” as if it mattered much at what time of the year a gale blows. The latter, when we turned tail and went before it, soon developed a latent tendency in the Great Eastern to obey the rules governing bodies floating on liquids under the action of summer gales. She rolled with a gravity and grandeur becoming so large a ship once in every 11 or 12 seconds; but on descending from the high decks to the saloon, one found no difficulty in walking along from end to end of it without gratuitous balancings or unpremeditated halts and progresses. It was a grey, gloomy, cloudy sea and sky--not a sail or a bird visible. In the forenoon the Terrible came in sight, lying-to with her topsail set, and it was hoped she was somewhere near the buoy. At noon our position was ascertained by observation to be Lat. 51° 29´ 30´, Long. 39° 6´ 0´´. Great Eastern, as soon as she was near enough, asked the Terrible, “Do you see the buoy?” After a time, the answer flew out, “No.” Then she added that she was “waiting for her position,” and that she “believes the buoy to be S.S.E.” of us. Our course was altered S. by E. ½ E, and the look-out men in the top swept the sea on all sides. The Terrible also started on the search. At 3·20 p.m. the two ships were within signalling distance again--sea decreasing, wind falling fast. The Terrible asked, “Did you see buoy?” which was answered in negative, and then inquired if the Great Eastern was going to grapple again, which was replied to in the affirmative--Captain Anderson busy in one cabin and Staff-Commander Moriarty busy in another, working diagrams and calculations, and coming nearer and nearer to the little speck which fancies it is hidden in the ocean: with very good reason, too, for the search after such an object on such a field as the Atlantic, ruffled by a gale of wind, might well be esteemed of very doubtful success. But the merchant captain and the naval staff-commander were not men to be beaten, and in keen friendly competition ran a race with pencils and charts to see who could determine the ship’s position with the greatest