“How deep, Mas’r Harry; forty or fifty foot?”
“Two or three miles, p’r’aps, Tom,” I replied.
“Go along! Two or three miles indeed!” he said, laughing.
“I don’t know that it is here, Tom,” I continued, “but I believe they have found the depth nearly double that in some places.”
“What! have they measured it, Mas’r Harry?”
“Yes, Tom.”
“With a bit of string?”
“With a sounding-line, Tom.”
“And a bit of lead at the end?”
“Yes, Tom, a sounding-lead with a great bullet, which they left at the bottom when they pulled the line in again.”