"This morning it came on to blow so heavily that it was impossible to take up our buoy. The _Elba_ recommenced rolling in true Baltic style, and towards noon we ran for land. "_27th, Sunday._ "This morning was a beautiful calm. We reached the buoys at about 4.30 and commenced picking up at 6.30. Shortly a new cause of anxiety arose. Kinks came up in great quantities, about thirty in the hour. To have a true conception of a kink, you must see one; it is a loop drawn tight, all the wires get twisted and the gutta-percha inside pushed out. These much diminish the value of the cable, as they must all be cut out, the gutta-percha made good, and the cable spliced. They arise from the cable having been badly laid down, so that it forms folds and tails at the bottom of the sea. These kinks have another disadvantage: they weaken the cable very much.--At about six o'clock [P.M.] we had some twelve miles lifted, when I went to the bows; the kinks were exceedingly tight and were giving way in a most alarming manner. I got a cage rigged up to prevent the end (if it broke) from hurting any one, and sat down on the bowsprit, thinking I should describe kinks to Annie:--suddenly I saw a great many coils and kinks altogether at the surface. I jumped to the gutta-percha pipe, by blowing through which the signal is given to stop the engine. I blow, but the engine does not stop: again--no answer; the coils and kinks jam in the bows and I rush aft shouting Stop! Too late: the cable had parted and must lie in peace at the bottom. Some one had pulled the gutta-percha tube across a bare part of the steam pipe and melted it. It had been used hundreds of times in the last few days and gave no symptoms of failing. I believe the cable must have gone at any rate; however, since it went in my watch, and since I might have secured the tubing more strongly, I feel rather sad.... "_June 28._ "Since I could not go to Annie I took down Shakespeare, and by the time I had finished _Antony and Cleopatra_, read the second half of _Troilus_ and got some way in _Coriolanus_, I felt it was childish to regret the accident had happened in my watch, and moreover I felt myself not much to blame in the tubing matter--it had been torn down, it had not fallen down; so I went to bed, and slept without fretting, and woke this morning in the same good mood--for which thank you and our friend Shakespeare. I am happy to say Mr. Liddell said the loss of the cable did not much matter; though this would have been no consolation had I felt myself to blame.--This morning we have grappled for and found another length of small cable which Mr. ---- dropped in 100 fathoms of water. If this also gets full of kinks, we shall probably have to cut it after 10 miles or so, or, more probably still, it will part of its own free will or weight.