IV 



My Log 391 



amuses me much ; he is like a very round, well-shaped 

 roach with a blunt nose ; pull it, and out comes 

 a most beautiful telescope of transparent silvery 

 cartilage, which m.ust be the very thing for fetching 

 a shrimp out of a crack. Why are they of such 

 different shapes ? are some of them intended to go 

 into the narrow holes and some into the round ones ? 

 It really looks like it. 



I should like to say something about the coast- 

 line of Spain and the beautiful snow range of the 

 Sierra Nevada, far away in the interior ; it is very 

 fine and richly coloured. Parenthetically, I beg to 

 remark that I am writing under the most extreme 

 difficulties ; it is blowing nearly a full gale of wind, 

 and the ship is bucketing about in this nasty short 

 sea in a way that makes it almost impossible to 

 keep the pen on the paper, much less to spell 

 correctly. For now, on this 26th day of November, 

 I am on the Mediterranean Sea, bowling along 

 before a stiff nor'-wester blowing, Bill, which bright is 

 the 'eavens above our 'eads and blue is the waters 

 beneath our keel ; and when the waves come racing 

 up astern, and the sun shines through their deep 

 blue tops, there is such a glimmering and a gleaming 

 of a bright green tint, caused I suppose by the 

 yellow light of the sun, that, — I really don't know 

 what, having to leave off and hold the ink with one 

 hand and the table with the other, for seven consecu- 

 tive rolls and likewise the same number of pitches. 

 All I know is that when old Admiral Lyons, — him as 



