IN THE DOWNS 111 



admit, seldom happened there was, as a rule, diversion 

 to be found in the society of the animals. I say, as a 

 rule; there were, of course, exceptions. It was not an 

 unmixed pleasure having the whole deck full of dogs 

 for all those months; our patience was severely tested 

 manj r a time. But in spite of all the trouble and incon- 

 venience to which the transport of the dogs necessarily 

 gave rise, I am certainly right in saying that these 

 months of sea voyage w r ould have seemed far more 

 monotonous and tedious if we had been without our 

 passengers. 



During the first four or five days we had now been 

 making our way towards the Straits of Dover, and the 

 hope began to dawn within us that this time, as last, we 

 should slip through without any great difficulty. There 

 had been five days of absolute calm; why should it not 

 last out the week? But it did not. As we passed the 

 lightship at the western end of the Goodwins the fine 

 weather left us, and in its place came the south-west 

 wind with rain, fog, and foul weather in its train. In 

 the course of half an hour it became so thick that it was 

 impossible to see more than two or three ship's lengths 

 ahead; but if we could see nothing, we heard all the 

 more. The ceaseless shrieks of many steam-whistles 

 and sirens told us only too plainly what a crowd of 

 vessels we were in. It was not exactly a pleasant situa- 

 tion ; our excellent ship had many good points, but they 

 did not prevent her being extraordinarily slow and awk- 



