ON BOARD THE "AURORA" 159 



about the dreadful calms on the Pacific Ocean. My de- 

 scription of the trade winds will already have informed 

 you that things arc not as bad as the writers of sensa- 

 tional stories would have you to believe. Prolonged, and 

 actually death- like calms are only noticeable along the 

 coast and particularly between Callao (sea-port of Lima) 

 and Mazatlan; the islands between Panama and the Gal- 

 lopagos, too, are frequently visited by these calms, which, 

 on occasions, will last for weeks, a good reason why sail- 

 ing vessels are seldom seen in those waters; they are 

 slimmed by all who do not have business in those regions. 

 The afore-mentioned calm happened on one of my per- 

 sonal holidays and lasted till evening. A strong East 

 Monsoon enabled us thereafter to continue our voyage 

 uninterruptedly until the nineteenth of December, which 

 means fully twenty-four days, accompanied by the most 

 delightful, mild weather. Though the air is much purer 

 and clearer here than under the same degrees of tropical 

 latitude in the Atlantic, the heat is not nearly as over- 

 powering, and hardly ever exceeds our ordinary sum- 

 mer's heat at home. The reason for this may be found in 

 the fact that we are sailing along the coast, which, being 

 very mountainous, protects the ocean for miles from the 

 approaching sun while on the Atlantic the unprotected 

 vessel is exposed to the tropical heat from which even 

 the coast, being West of the traveller, cannot possibly 

 offer any amelioration. We seldom noticed cloudy at- 

 mosphere until after sun-set, which latter was ordinarily 

 beautifully clear. And yet we must not lose sight of the 

 fact that, at the time indicated, the proper advent of win- 

 ter had, according to the dictates of "Grandma's calen- 

 dar," still three days of grace. I hardly remember hav- 

 ing had such marvelously clear nights at any time dur- 

 ing the crossing of the Atlantic, though I find among my 

 notes a similar mention on the thirty-first of July a. p. 



Nothing can be compared to Nature's Panorama in the 

 South-Sea; no human description can faithfully portray 

 the magnificence of the scene which the immense, purple, 

 rayless fire-ball— the sun — offers to the naked eye as it 



