^{page no 495 note *} Throughout the following statements, the word mile will be used to denote (not that most meaningless of modern measures, the British statute mile) but the nautical mile, or the length of a minute of latitude, in mean latitudes, which is 6073 feet. For approximate statements, rough estimates, &c., it may be taken as 6000 feet, or 1000 fathoms.

^{page no 497 note *} Precisely the movement of a battalion in line changing front.

^{page no 502 note *} The strongest rope available was a quantity of rope of iron wire and hemp spun together, able to bear 14 tons, which was prepared merely as buoyrope (to provide for the contingency of being obliged, by stress of weather or other cause, to cut and leave the cable in deep or shallow water), and was accordingly all in 100 fathoms-lengths, joined by shackles with swivels. The wire and hemp rope itself never broke, but on two of the three occasions a swivel gave way. On the last occasion, about 900 fathoms of Manilla rope had to be used for the upper part, there not being enough of the wire buoyrope left; and when 700 fathoms of it had been got in, it broke on board beside a shackle, and the remaining 200 fathoms of the Manilla, with 1540 fathoms of wire-rope and the grapnel, and the electric cable which it had hooked, were all lost for the year 1865.