THE OCEAN VOYAGE 97 



thing possible was done to make our voyage as pleasant 

 as could be expected, and this period in particular will 

 always be pleasantly remembered. The only privation 

 was caused by the bad drinking water, in regard to which 

 I find the first notice in my diary of July 4th. I wrote 

 it in the spirit of real depression and in the meantime 

 in the consciousness of such weakness as one experiences 

 when the pangs of real thirst are torturing body and 

 mind. 



I formerly often thought myself thirsty, but it is my 

 present conviction that I never knew what real thirst 

 meant until I experienced it on this voyage, in the days 

 when I hesitated to the last moment before I dared to 

 take a few swallows of the black, yellowish, disgustingly 

 warm water, which emitted an odor that was equal only to 

 its putridity, and yet it was not that which made me 

 hesitate, no indeed! The real thirst does not know of 

 such foolish notions; it was only because my ration would 

 thus grow smaller! Fortunately, this privation lasted 

 only a fortnight or so, when we enjoyed better water, 

 though our Fregel (river) at home would have been a 

 dispenser of delicacy in comparison with the quality of 

 the ship's supply. During that period I had ample 

 opportunity to meditate upon the rare enjoyment which 

 is derived from a glass of clear, cold, fresh well-water 

 and I would have derived great pleasure in treating to 

 my daily refreshments some of those fools who will pour 

 a glass of delicious well water upon the sand on account 

 of a little dust or perhaps only a gnat which has fallen 

 into it. Our drinking water contained other things than 

 dust or dead gnats. 



We passed the northern tropic circle on July the 7th, 

 about half past four in the afternoon. The temperature 

 was cool and agreeable, while the air was "flabby," to 

 use a sailor's expression, which means dull, without 

 being foggy or cloudy, ? peculiarity of the latitudes of 

 the northern as well as sor+hern tropic circles, where, 

 with the exception of the noon hour, one cannot count 

 upon clearnes : and brightness of the air. 



7 



