THE VOYAGE OF THE HASSLER 123 



days. What do we do? For my part read, read, read: 

 four volumes of Froude are already disposed of and 

 much of my light literature devoured also. I read 

 German every day with Dr. Steindachner, who is 

 most kind in helping me, and then I read aloud a good 

 deal to Mrs. Johnson. I have been reading Jane Eyre 

 to her. I felt more than ever in reading it with care 

 that in spite of its faults, and it has great ones, it has 

 wonderful originality and beauty, the true ring of 

 genius, — and it has a high moral aim, too. Then we 

 watch the Portuguese men-of-war on days when they 

 are plenty, and see occasional troops of flying fish and 

 many phosphorescent creatures floating by at night. 

 Still on the whole the sea is a niggard of its treasures 

 — when one thinks how full it is of things, the sight 

 of which, were it only a single one, would make a day 

 rich, and after all how little one sees, it makes you 

 quite discontented. I crave a whale or a dolphin; I 

 would not despise even a shoal of porpoises, and day 

 after day passes and the sea gives us nothing but 

 itself — ad nauseam, in the truest sense of the words 

 sometimes. 



TO MRS. THOMAS G. GARY 



Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, January 23 

 Here we are once more in this wonderful country, 

 which seems to me even more beautiful than when I 

 first saw it. We rose early this morning and were on 

 deck before sunrise, for the sail along the mountain- 

 ous coast and the entrance into the harbor is not to 



