rope might part, or that the Cable itself might break at the bight, but no one had thought of the stout iron shackles and swivels yielding. To add to the gloominess of the situation, the fog, which had so long been hanging round the ship, settled down densely, and obliged the Great Eastern to proceed with extreme caution. But although the event damped, it did not extinguish, the hopes of the engineers. Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford at once set their staff to bend 2,500 fathoms of spare wire rope to another grapnel, and to prepare a buoy to mark the spot as nearly as could be guessed where the rope had parted, and gone down with the bight of the Cable. The Great Eastern was to steam away to windward of the course of the Cable, and then drift down upon it about three miles west of the place where the accident occurred. Fog whistles were blown to warn the Terrible of our change of position, and at 1·30, ship’s time, the Great Eastern, as she steamed slowly away, fired a gun, to which a real or fancied response was heard soon afterwards. As she went ahead, guns were fired every 20 minutes, and the steam-whistles were kept going, but no reply was made, and she proceeded on her course alone. It was impossible to obtain a noon-day observation, and the only course to be pursued was to steam to windward for 14 or 15 miles, then to lay-to and drift, in the hope of procuring a favourable position for letting go the second grapnel, and catching the Cable once more. _August 4th._--The morning found the Great Eastern drifting in a dense fog. In order to gauge the nature of the task before them, the engineers fitted up a sounding tackle of all the spare line they could get, and hove it overboard with a heavy lead attached. The sinker, it is believed, touched bottom at 2,300 fathoms, but it never came up to tell the tale. The line broke when the men were pulling it in, and 2000 fathoms of cord were added to the maze of Cable and wire rope with which the bed of the Atlantic must be vexed hereabouts. The fog cleared away in the morning, and the Terrible was visible astern. Presently one of her boats put off, with a two-mile pull before her, for the Great Eastern. Lieutenant Prowse was sent to know what we had been doing, and what we intended to do. He returned to his ship with the information that Mr. Canning, full of determination, if not of hope, would renew his attempt to grapple the Cable, and haul it up once more. At noon, Captain Anderson and Staff-Commander Moriarty, who had been very much perplexed at the obstinate refusal of the sun to shine, and might be seen any time between 8 a.m. and noon parading the bridge sextant in hand, taking sights at space, succeeded in obtaining an observation, which gave our position Lat. 51° 34´ 30´´, Long. 37° 54´. The Great Eastern had drifted 34 miles from the place where the Cable parted, and as she had steamed 12 miles, her position was 46 miles to the east of the end of the Cable.