120 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



watch the faces of the sailors, some of whom were free 

 and gathered round to listen. He said they looked so 

 earnest and engrossed, and while Agassiz was describ- 

 ing with the help of the blackboard the structure of 

 some of the little animals found on the gulf weed, Dr. 

 Hill went out to them with a microscope and showed 

 them the actual specimen through the lens. It does 

 more than please them. It gives them such an interest 

 in the work [that] they are indeed most ready to help. 

 I am just going to bed having been on deck, with the 

 exception of meals, from half-past seven o'clock this 

 morning till half-past eight this evening. You who 

 know only the North Atlantic voyages have little 

 idea of this tropical sailing. 



St. Thomas, December 19 



WE are getting rather dissipated at St. Thomas. I 

 began this day by rising at five o'clock and going on 

 shore with Pourtales. We had planned a walk to a 

 hill-top called "Luisen Height," a pretty house on the 

 very top of the edge of the island. Every native whom 

 I have consulted on the subject looked at me in horror 

 and assured me that it was altogether too rough an 

 undertaking for a lady unless on horseback. It is in 

 fact an easy walk of a mile and a half or two miles, 

 perhaps, and at the hour at which we went not too 

 warm. We were on shore an hour before sunrise; the 

 town was just waking; the negroes just beginning to 

 get their little trays and stands of fruit in order as we 

 climbed the steep street towards the mountain. The 

 streets are so steep here that carriages are out of the 



