128 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



the floor. My clothes which I had carefully arranged 

 on the big chair had capsized with the chair and 

 formed an indiscriminate heap increased by a number 

 of additional articles which had fallen from the pegs ; 

 in the midst of the confusion a port broke open and 

 let in four or five buckets of water which flooded the 

 floor, and there the whole mass went swash, swash, 

 books, clothes, shoes, up and down, taking a general 

 swim. Such a mess you never saw and is not to be 

 conceived of on land. After this we had a day or two of 

 beautiful weather; then another gale, in the midst of 

 which Mr. Kennedy took me up to the top of the com- 

 panion way to look out upon the scene. It is more grand 

 than pleasant to see the great waves surging up about 

 the little vessel looking as if they must inevitably 

 pour down upon her. However, they do not, she 

 rides them like a duck. You need not imagine we have 

 been in any danger from my descriptions, which I flat- 

 ter myself are very thrilling; on the contrary I believe 

 we've always been quite as safe, though not as com- 

 fortable, as if sitting in our parlors at home and that 

 the gales we have met have been bagatelles to a great 

 storm. I'm not ambitious to test the difference and 

 am quite content with what I have already seen of 

 the terrors of the great deep. 



TO MRS. THOMAS G. GARY 



Off Bahia Blanca, March 3 



THE next morning [after leaving Monte Video] we had 

 a dredging which was a delightful chance for Agassiz. 



