UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 355 



teen miles an hour, with some very hard squalls. The 

 windmill could not begin to find enough work to do, 

 the bilge being kept dry. As we have been somewhat 

 annoyed with a smell from the bilge for the past few 

 days, we clean bilges in a rough manner to-day, by 

 opening the sea cocks and letting in additional water, 

 stirring up the mass and scrubbing with brooms, the 

 windmill pumping out the water as readily as v/e could 

 wish. As there has been a steady inlet of water and 

 clear flow since January 19th, one would imagine that 

 our bilges were clean, and, as far as clean, bright wood 

 can indicate, they are. Unless there is some chemical 

 decomposition of the sea water, or some decaying ani- 

 malcule, I am unable to assign the cause for this odor 

 to our bilges, and even if it is from one of the two 

 causes above mentioned, I am unable to say from 

 which one. 



At ten A. M. I inspected the ship. We have now 

 three on the sick list, — Danenhower, as usual, Sweet- 

 man, with neuralgia, and Ah Sam, the cook, with a 

 kind of intermittent fever. Sweetman has had a bad 

 tooth for some time, and the doctor has been unable to 

 extract it because of its being, apparently, interlaced at 

 the roots ; and I am inclined to think the neuralgia is 

 the result of that trouble. Ah Sam's fever may have 

 arisen from a cold. These are two valuable men, and 

 their sickness excites our warmest sympathy and con- 

 sideration. The carpenter work may stand still, but 

 the cooking must go on. In this emergency the stew- 

 ard calmly does his own work and the cook's too, just 

 as naturally as, when the steward was sick, the cook 

 performed both functions. This is another cause of my 

 profound admiration for this race. I verily believe 

 that either or both of them would undertake any duty, 



