It was then ten at night. The eleventh day of the month of December was drawing to a close in a magnificent night.
The "Susquehanna," a corvette of 500 horse-power, of the United States' navy, was occupied in taking soundings in the Pacific Ocean about 200 miles off the American coast, following that long peninsula which stretches down the coast of New Mexico.
The wind had dropped by degrees. There was no disturbance in the air. Their pennant hung motionless from the maintop-gallant-mast truck.
Captain Jonathan Blomsberry (cousin-german of Colonel Blomsberry, one of the most ardent supporters of the Gun Club, who had married an aunt of the captain and daughter of an honourable Kentucky merchant,)—Captain Blomsberry could not have wished for finer weather in which to bring to a close his delicate operations of sounding. His corvette had not even felt the great tempest, which by sweeping away the groups of clouds on the Rocky Mountains, had allowed them to observe the course of the famous projectile.
Everything went well, and with all the fervour of a Presbyterian, he did not forget to thank heaven for it. The series of soundings taken by the "Susquehanna," had for its aim the finding of a favourable spot for the laying of a submarine cable to connect the Hawaiian Islands with the coast of America.
"I FANCY I SEE THEM."
It was a great undertaking, due to the instigation of a powerful company. Its managing director, the intelligent Cyrus Field, purposed even covering all the islands of Oceania with a vast electrical network, an immense enterprise, and one worthy of American genius.
To the corvette Susquehanna had been confided the first operations of sounding. It was on the night of the 11th—12th of December, she was in exactly 27° 7' north lat., and 41° 37' west long., on the meridian of Washington.
The moon, then in her last quarter, was beginning to rise above the horizon.