Notes and Sjjort of a Dry-Fly Purist. 201 



knots an hour, and to steer it, but also utilised to 

 perform all the hard work usually done by manual 

 labour of the crew. For half an hour some 

 boisterous spirits kept the deck, chiefly soldiers and 

 smokers, but then all went below, or to the deck 

 saloon, and I was left alone to my meditations on a 

 summer's night in a scene quite new to me of 

 surpassing beauty and impressiveness, although from 

 July 1st to the 20th there is no real night. 



After wandering about to every part I took up 

 my standing position at the stern rail of the vessel 

 about 1 o'clock a.m. I noticed a very long thin 

 cord trailing arid twisting behind, which to an 

 angler suggested that an enormous spinning bait 

 might be at the end of it ; and a spinner there really 

 Was, but it was an invention to ascertain the speed 

 of the ship and to register . the same on a patent 

 Cherub log at my side. 'I was sheltered from the 

 draught by the steering-room at my back, against 

 which I leaned, and occasionally looked into when 

 the rudder chains rapped and scraped as ever and 

 .anon the ship's course was slightly altered from 

 the far-off captain's bridge. To me there seemed 

 something weird and uncanny about this steering- 

 room, for it was lighted by electricity, no one was 

 in it, and as one watched through a port-hole-like 

 window the small mechanism within, it was inert 

 one minute and motionless as death, and the next 



