“On Friday the 13th of July, 1866, the fleet finally bade adieu to the land. Was Friday an unlucky day? Some of the sailors thought so, and would have been glad to leave a day before or after. But Columbus sailed on Friday, and discovered the New World on Friday; and so this expedition put to sea on Friday, and, as a good Providence would have it, reached land on the other side of the Atlantic on the same day of the week! As the ships disappeared below the horizon, Mr. Glass and Mr. Varley went up on their watch‐tower, not to look, but to listen for the first voice from the sea. The ships bore away for the buoy where lay the end of the shore line, but the weather was thick and foggy, with frequent bursts of rain, and they could not see far on the water. For an hour or two the ships went sailing round and round, like sea‐gulls in search of prey. At length the _Medway_ caught sight of the buoy tossing on the waves, and firing a signal gun, bore down straight upon it. The cable was soon hauled up from its bed, 100 fathoms deep, and lashed to the stern of the _Great Eastern_; and the watchers on shore, who had been waiting with some impatience, saw the first flash, and Varley read, ‘Got the shore‐end all right; going to make the splice.’ Then all was still, and they knew that that delicate operation was going on. Quick, nimble hands tore off the covering from a foot of the shore‐end and of the main cable till they came to the core, then swiftly unwinding the copper wires they laid them together as closely and carefully as a silken braid. Then this delicate child of the sea was wrapped in swaddling clothes, covered up with many coatings of gutta‐ percha and hempen rope and strong iron wires, the whole bound round and round with heavy bands, and the splicing was complete. Signals are now sent through the whole cable on board the _Great Eastern_ and back to the telegraph house at Valentia, and the whole length, 2,440 nautical miles, is reported perfect, and so with light hearts they bear away. It is nearly three o’clock. As they turn to the west, the following is the ‘order of battle’: the _Terrible_ goes ahead, standing off on the starboard bow, the _Medway_ is on the port, and the _Albany_ on the starboard quarter. From that hour the voyage was a steady progress. Indeed, it was almost monotonous from its uninterrupted success. The weather was variable, alternating with sunshine and rain, fogs and squalls; but there was no heavy sea to interrupt their course, and the distance run was about the same from day to day, as the following table will show:—