The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

"At a quarter-past five A.M., telegraph cable landed. At six, end of cable carried into telegraph-house, and received very strong currents of electricity through the whole cable from the other side of the Atlantic. Captain Hudson, of the Niagara, then read prayers, and made some remarks. "At one P.M., Her Majesty's steamer Gorgon fired a royal salute of twenty-one guns." Thus simply was the story told, that in a few hours was to send a thrill throughout the continent. To complete the narrative of the expedition, it is necessary to include the voyage of the Agamemnon, the best account of which is given in the letter of the correspondent of the London Times. We quote from the time of junction in mid-ocean, just as the ships went sailing eastward and westward: "For the first three hours the ships proceeded very slowly, paying out a great quantity of slack, but after the expiration of this time, the speed of the Agamemnon was increased to about five knots per hour, the cable going at about six, without indicating more than a few hundred pounds of strain upon the dynamometer. Shortly after six o'clock a very large whale was seen approaching the starboard bow at a great speed, rolling and tossing the sea into foam all around and for the first time we felt the possibility of the supposition that our second mysterious breakage of the cable might have been caused after all by one of these animals getting foul of it under water. It appeared as if it were making direct for the cable, and great was the relief of all when the ponderous living mass was seen slowly to pass astern, just grazing the cable where it entered the water, but fortunately without doing any mischief.