Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/213

THE SCILLY ISLANDS 207 how to get messages through in time to prove that an established telegraph was working. The operator was equal to the occasion. Shutting himself in the little instrument-room, he manipu- lated the current and produced messages. Mr. Uren, the late Postmaster of Penzance, says, " I can testify that I saw signals which purported to have passed over the cable, printed in plain characters on the Morse slip ; and on the faith of these signals the contractors issued their certi- ficate, and the Company took over the cable. Needless to say, the whole thing was a ruse. The ruptured cable lay dead and idle at the bottom of the Channel — lost past all recovery." It was easy to explain afterwards that the fracture took place naturally ; and a new cable was soon laid to the island. Such being one sample of the proceedings at the time, we may imagine that the public paid very dearly when Government took over these telegraphs, which have never yet shown a profit. It is frequently stated, as a reason for its equable climate, that Scilly lies right in the course of the Gulf Stream. Of course this is a mistake. The true Gulf Stream does not come within a thousand miles of Britain. There is, however, a surface-current of warm water carried north- eastward from hot latitudes, and this materially affects not only Scilly, but the entire western coast. Although so mild, the climate is dry and bracing ; there are no unwholesome damps. Lon- gevity is the rule on the islands, and the single doctor has little to do beyond assisting sturdy young Scillonians on their entrance into the world. At the capital, St. Mary's, there are shops, banks, and hotels, with a public hall, a modern