_July 26th._--The course of the Cable ran smoothly all throughout the night. At 8 a.m. the Great Eastern was 150 miles from Valentia, and 161½ miles of Cable, including the shore end, had been laid--the loss by slack being only 7·63 per cent. The morning was hazy, and a strong wind from the north-west brought up rather a heavy sea, but the Great Eastern was as steady as a Thames steamer; indeed the stability of the vessel was a never-ending theme of admiration. Our consorts were not so indifferent to the roll of the Atlantic. The Terrible thumped through the heavy sea, and buried her bows in foam with dogged determination. The Sphinx gave very unmistakable indications of having a harder enigma than she bargained for, as she engaged in her task of taking soundings, which now had become important. We were getting into deep water, having passed the bank on which there is only 200 fathoms, and had come suddenly to the slope beginning with 700 fathoms, and running in one degree to 1,750 fathoms. This slope is not, however, severer than that of Holborn-hill, though it looks very severe upon the map. Towards noon the sea and wind increased. The Sphinx, which first sent down topgallant masts, finally sent down topmasts, but was unable to make head in the sea way, and dropped further and further astern. At noon our course was W.N.W. ¾ W., the wind being strong on the port bow, and the weather thick all round, with drizzling mist. Our position was made out to be Lat 52° 18´ 42´´, Long. 15° 10´´, distance run 111½ miles, Cable paid out 125 miles, total distance from Valentia 178 miles. At 1·45 p.m. the Terrible signalled that the Sphinx was unable to keep up with us, but the Cable was running so easily it was resolved not to diminish our speed. Later in the afternoon, the Terrible sent down topgallant masts; later again, she signalled that we were going too fast for the Sphinx; but as the Great Eastern was not exceeding 6½ knots an hour, at which rate the Cable rolled off easily from the drums, the engineers did not think it advisable to reduce her speed, and so the Sphinx was left further astern, till at length she was hull down on the grey horizon. Each hour it became more important to know what depth of water we were in; and the inconvenience of parting with the Sphinx was felt, as well, perhaps, as the defective nature of the arrangements with the Admiralty, which had furnished only one sounding apparatus. The Terrible had got no deep-sea sounding apparatus. There was none on board of the Great Eastern. In deep-sea soundings a special apparatus is requisite, and the leads and the lines ordinarily used by men-of-war only penetrate the upper strata of the waters of the Atlantic. It was conjectured that we had passed over the 2,050 fathoms’ soundings, and the Cable proved, by a slightly increased pressure on the dynamometer, that its trail was lengthening in the watery waste ere it ruffled the smooth surface of the ooze two miles below.