I hope this information will in some degree compensate you for the inconvenience which the heavy weather has occasioned you. And I remain, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, Very faithfully yours, A. ENRIGHT, _Commander_. If further proof is wanted that Captain Enright did not allow 60 miles to a degree, but only 44 as he states to his passengers, here are the noon positions found by observation, not account only, from which the runs can be verified on the chart. March 18, Lat. 42° 34′ S., Long. 17° 04′ W. 19, Lat. 43° 0′ S., Long. 7° 17′ W. 20, Lat. 43° 0′ S., Long. 0° 55′ E. The following is a list of all runs of 400 miles and over, which I have been able to verify. March 1, 1854.—_Lightning_ 436 miles. March 19, 1857.—_Lightning_ 430 miles. February 6, 1855.—_James Baines_ 423 miles. February 27, 1855.—_Donald Mackay_ 421 miles. June 18, 1856.—_James Baines_ 420 miles. February 27, 1854.—_Red Jacket_ 413 miles. January 27, 1855.—_James Baines_ 407 miles. July 6, 1854.—_Red Jacket_ 400 miles. All these performances were made running east, making the day’s work under 24 hours. Several other ships claimed runs of over 400 miles, but I have not included these as I have not sufficient particulars to verify them. _Marco Polo_ is supposed to have done a run of 428 miles under Captain McDonald on 7th January, 1854, and _Shalimar_ 420 miles in 1855 on her first passage to Australia, under Captain Robertson. With this general account of their powers I must now return to a more detailed description of the giant clippers themselves. The “Lightning.” The _Lightning_ was built by Donald Mackay to the order of James Baines in the winter of 1853-4 at a cost of £30,000, and on her arrival in Liverpool was furnished and decorated below at a further cost of £2000. [Illustration: “LIGHTNING.” _From a painting._] Her measurements were:— Tonnage (builders) 2096 tons. (register) 1468 „ (burthen) 3500 „ Length 244 feet. Beam 44 „ Depth 23 „ Dead rise at half-floor 20 inches. Her poop was 92 feet long and her saloon 86 feet, whilst she had 8 feet under the beams in her ’tween decks, a most unusual height for those days. With regard to design, she was one of the sharpest ships ever launched. Her model is thus described by Captain H. H. Clark:—“She had long, concave water-lines and at her load displacement line a cord from her cut-water to just abaft the fore rigging showed a concavity of 16 inches. Her stem raked boldly forward, the lines of the bow gradually becoming convex and blending with the sheer line and cut-water, while the only ornament was a beautiful full-length figure of a young woman holding a golden thunderbolt in her outstretched hand, the flowing white drapery of her graceful form and her streaming hair completing the fair and noble outline of the bow.