The Great Eastern dropped to leeward when her engines stopped. When the end of the Cable was got in over the bows, and the picking-up engine was set to work, it was discovered that the locomotive boiler intended to keep up a head of steam for the machinery, was defective. Steam was then supplied by one of the boilers of the ship: the drums and wheels of the picking-up machinery began to revolve, slowly dragging in the Cable over the bows, with a strain which at times rose from 10 cwt. to 30 cwt., leaving a very large margin before the breaking point was reached. The ship’s bows were kept up to the line of the Cable with great cleverness, and Mr. Canning and his assistants were perfectly satisfied with their progress. It would be too much to expect that all on board should be so easily contented; for in fact the process of picking-up is of the slowest--a mile an hour was considered to be a fair rate of speed, and a mile and a-quarter was something to be very thankful for. Still, the prospect of returning to Ireland and getting back to the shore end, at the highest of these retrogressive celerities, did not prove attractive. Our position, by observation at noon, was Lat. 52° 2´ 30´´, Long. 12° 17´ 30´´. As the Cable was in fair working order, Mr. Canning transmitted a message to Mr. Glass at Knightstown, to send out the Hawk, in order that he might return in her, and ascertain if the shore end of the Cable were defective. If that were not the case, he proposed to sacrifice the portion of Cable already laid, to return and make a new splice of the main line with the shore end, and to start afresh. In the course of the evening a message was received from Mr. Glass, informing Mr. Canning that the Hawk should be sent out as soon as she had coaled the Caroline. The Terrible sent her First Lieutenant, Mr. Prowse, on board, to see if she could render us any assistance. The Sphinx was busied in taking soundings all round the ship, which showed depths varying from 400 to 480 fathoms. The operation of picking up proceeded all day and all night--the weather being fine but cloudy.