'9 P.M. - A most provoking unsatisfactory day. We have done
nothing. The wind and sea have both risen. Too little notice has
been given to the telegraphists who accompany this expedition; they
had to leave all their instruments at Lyons in order to arrive at
Bona in time; our tests are therefore of the roughest, and no one
really knows where the faults are. Mr. L- in the morning lost much
time; then he told us, after we had been inactive for about eight
hours, that the fault in number three was within six miles; and at
six o'clock in the evening, when all was ready for a start to pick
up these six miles, he comes and says there must be a fault about
thirty miles from Bona! By this time it was too late to begin
paying out today, and we must lie here moored in a thousand fathoms
till light to-morrow morning. The ship pitches a good deal, but
the wind is going down.
'June 13, Sunday.
'The wind has not gone down, however. It now (at 10.30) blows a
pretty stiff gale, the sea has also risen; and the ELBA'S bows rise
and fall about 9 feet.
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