66 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



said she was not rolling at all, in his opinion, 

 though she might begin to do so in the night. Now, 

 had she been one of several other vessels he could 

 mention, we should know what rolling really meant. 

 The captain's words were quite true, for certainly 

 in the night we got an enlarged experience of 

 rolling, and throughout to-day we seem to have 

 been heaving over ceaseless mountains of water 

 and plunging down into yawning valleys with- 

 out end, partly pitching and partly heaving, 

 the ship behaving admirably — in the captain's 

 opinion — and he knows well what is good or bad 

 behaviour on the part of a ship in such circum- 

 stances." 



** The Special Commissioner," who enjoys im- 

 munity from sea sickness, worried us all about the 

 , desirability of celebrating New Year's 



new xG«u s 



Eve in the Eve. No one thought of agreeing to 

 such a proposal, but on referring to a 

 file of the Sportsman, I find that he wrote on the 

 evening of December 31 : 



" It is New Year's Eve, and I, at any rate, will 

 see the New Year in, though the saloon light 

 where I am writing is put out at 10.30, and that 

 in the smoking-room at 11.30. I have never, to 

 the best of my recollection, missed seeing a New 

 Year in, and I am not going to begin now. More- 

 over, I propose to knock at our various ' state- 



