8G AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



the Sierra. Sonoma and Ventura, modern 6,000-horse 

 power steamers, make the trip regularly every three 

 weeks. The table is excellent and the service faultless. 

 The distance from San Francisco to Auckland is nearly 

 6,000 miles, and the time to cover it 17 days. The 

 monotony of the voyage is broken by making stops at 

 Honolulu and Pago Pago long enough for the passen- 

 gers to get a good glimpse of the tropics, their inhabit- 

 ants, animal life and products of the soil. Between 

 these places is the desert ocean, and the passenger who 

 does not know how to improve his time profitably might 

 be tempted to complain of 



"The burden of the desert of the sea." — Isaiah xxi, 1. 



We never saw a sail or puff of smoke on the whole 

 voyage, except in the harbors. The interested traveler 

 has, however, enough to see and observe. The endless, 

 trackless waste of the ocean in itself is something won- 

 derful to contemplate, in its various moods of peace and 

 rest, anger and storms. The glorious sunsets paint 

 pictures on sky, sea and clouds that delight the eye of 

 the most unappreciative of the wonders of nature. The 

 starlit sky and the silvery moon enlighten the evenings 

 and shorten the long nights in the tropics. One day 

 out from Honolulu the sun crossed our ship, and two 

 days before we reached Auckland the full moon, from 

 its lofty position, smiled directly down on the very tips 

 of its masts. The great crest-covered furrows ploughed 

 by the ship on each side reminded one of the speed with 

 which we move on, and at night hypnotize and delight 

 the sense of sight by their phosphorescent illumination 

 in the form of myriads of diamonds, which come and 

 disappear in the twinkle of the eye. The animals en- 

 countered in the South Pacific are few, hence more 

 eagerly looked for. That daring, tireless mariner, the 

 sea-gull, followed the wake of the ship nearly the entire 

 distance. Brown and white, large and small, these 

 graceful flyers circled in the air. with little effort on 



