238 By Stream and Sea. 



A "log" should be distinguished, above all its other qualities, 

 by the painful minuteness of its details ; it should bristle with 

 facts and abound with figures. In this sense " My Ocean 

 Log " will be a rank imposition ; it is only as the fancy hits 

 me that I enter my paragraphs, and it does not hang heavy 

 upon my conscience if the topic which intrudes itself be but 

 indirectly connected with the voyage. 



Would the fortunate gentlemen of England who sit at 

 home at ease be surprised to discover that in these days an 

 ocean trip is apt to be an extremely humdrum affair ? A 

 journey of between sixteen and seventeen thousand miles, 

 extending over, say, a couple of months, might perhaps be 

 expected to produce a heavy crop of exciting adventures. 

 But such is not my experience. A veritable log of our 

 voyage from England to Australia would be, no doubt, more 

 interesting than Bradshaw's "Railway Guide," but not much. 

 The fact is, there is nothing new in these days : we know 

 all about everything ; and there is no denying that steam, 

 while it has given us rapidity of communication and 

 conveniences and luxuries which never entered into the 

 conceptions of the mariners of the wooden-wall period, has 

 introduced a wonderfully prosaic element into travel. The 

 man who used to sail round the world was a hero ; now he 

 is merely a globe-trotter. For which and other reasons I 

 post up " My Ocean Log " after my own fashion, and cherish 

 the assumption that the reader knows as much of the mere 

 maps of the route as the writer himself. 



Suppose we take, then, at a bound, the Bay of Biscay? 

 This is an expanse of water with which all the terrors of the 

 ocean are associated, and, as we know full well, many a 

 gallant ship has been drawn down into its treacherous depths. 

 But the experienced sailors on board assured me that storms 

 in " the Bay " are the exception rather than the rule : that 



