V.] TREATMENT FOR SEA-SICKNESS. 15 



he had already found his sea legs ; and, sitting down on the 

 cabin floor, with a basin on one side of him, and a pestle 

 and mortar on the other, used to manufacture my pills, 

 between the paroxysms of his malady, with a decorous 

 pertinacity that could not be too much admired. 



Strangely enough, too, his state of unhappiness lasted a 

 few days longer than the eight-and-forty hours which are 

 generally sufficient to set people on their feet again. I 

 tried to console him by representing what an occasion it 

 was for observing the phenomena of sea-sickness from a 

 scientific point of view ; and I must say he set to work most 

 conscientiously to discover some remedy. Brandy, prussic 

 acid, opium, champagne, ginger, mutton-chops, and tumblers 

 of salt-water, were successively exhibited ; but, I regret to 

 say, after a few minutes, each in turn ;-<?- exhibited itself with 

 monotonous punctuality. Indeed, at one time we thought 

 he would never get over it ; and the following conversation, 

 which I overheard one morning between him and my servant, 

 did not brighten his hopes of recovery. 



This person's name is Wilson, and of all men I ever met 

 he is the most desponding. Whatever is to be done, he is 

 sure to see a lion in the path. Life in his eyes is a perpetual 

 filling of leaky buckets, and a rolling of stones up hill. He 

 is amazed when the bucket holds water, or the stone perches 

 on the summit. He professes but a limited belief in his 

 star, — and success with him is almost a disappointment. 

 His countenance corresponds with the prevailing character 

 of his thoughts, always hopelessly chapfallen ; his voice is as 

 of the tomb. He brushes my clothes, lays the cloth, opens 

 the champagne, with the air of one advancing to his execu- 

 tion. I have never seen him smile but once, when he came 

 to report to me that a sea had nearly swept his colleague, 

 the steward, overboard. The son of a gardener at Chiswick, 

 he first took to horticulture ; then emigrated as a settler to 

 the Cape, where he acquired his present complexion, which 

 is of a grass-green ; and finally served as a steward on board 

 an Australian steam-packet. 



