136 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



sea. However, you must not imagine we have had any 

 alarming ones except to the uninitiated. I only tell 

 you about them to show that our experience is a 

 varied one, and there is always a funny side to these 

 rough times when not only things but people are 

 whacked about without any respect for personal dig- 

 nity. The sea went down towards evening yesterday, 

 and after the sleepless night before all turned in early. 

 I think the "sleep of the just" must be a restless 

 slumber in comparison to mine last night; from nine 

 o'clock to six this morning I never stirred and when I 

 waked it was a beautiful warm morning and the ship 

 as quiet as our own house in Quincy Street. 



We have just been dredging off the Gulf of St. 

 George in about fifty fathoms of water, and beautiful 

 things have come up; a starfish more than a foot 

 in diameter, its ten arms subdivided a hundredfold 

 into countless delicate fibrous-like branches, winding 

 and coiling in an endless variety of curves; another 

 huge starfish, like an immense sunflower, with thirty- 

 seven arms, measuring some fifteen inches from the 

 tip of one arm to the tip of the opposite arm; then 

 beautiful sea-urchins, a skate egg with the living 

 young, etCi, etc. As we go south the ship is sur- 

 rounded with birds, albatross, ducks, gulls and other 

 birds, the names of which we do not know. They are 

 so tame that we pass them quite close without dis- 

 turbing them. 



March 15 

 Yesterday was again very fine, but with a pretty 

 strong wind and sea, and as the beach was difficult to 



