8 Travels and Adventures 



occurred to me to imitate the fellow who, on account of 

 the effects of an overdose of Pommery '76, or some 

 more disreputable stuff, sat down on the floor to wait 

 until the bedstead would stop for him to get into bed. 

 However, after this experience, the rude wind finally 

 betook himself to other climes to play his unwelcome 

 pranks, and the sea settled down from a turbulent, 

 boiling mass of white foam to that calm, placid blue, 

 that would fain make believe it was always like that. 



All this time we had seen nothing but an occasional 

 passing ship of the kind I had remarked coming out 

 of the Mersey, so superfluously encumbered with sticks 

 and cords. Now their utility became apparent : each 

 bundle of cloth had been unwound and dexterously 

 hung in a position best calculated to court the society 

 of the fickle breeze ; each available corner was crowded, 

 and the spotless whiteness of the canvas — intensified 

 by the bright sunlight and the soft blue of the ocean — 

 when contrasted with our own combination of smoky 

 funnels and clanking engines, would trive one to 

 imagine that the strange fantastic craft was a visitor 

 from the supernatural, or that Mercury, to better per- 

 form some peculiar nautical errand, had taken upon 

 him the form of a gigantic sea-bird. However, putting- 

 all allegory aside, there is no more beautiful sight at 

 sea than a full-rigged ship in sail on a fine day. After 

 about six days' sailing 1 noticed one morning a long 



