NEWFOUNDLAND. 31 



ship far below him. Of course, the first time that he 

 essayed this feat he had to pay his footing, for one of the 

 sailors swarmed up after him, and tied his legs with an 

 end of spun-yarn in the rigging, until he promised to stand 

 treat with a quart of rum. 



He soon found that he could write and even draw 

 without any difficulty on board, in fair weather ; and so he 

 went on with the literary work which had beguiled his 

 young ambition at Poole, a volume of Quadrupeds, copied 

 and described from various books in his possession. This 

 was good practice, though not in any sense an original 

 exercise ; he kept hard at it, however, and it was finished 

 in time to be sent home on the first returning vessel from 

 Carbonear. More important, as a work of self-education 

 for the future naturalist, was a copious journal kept for 

 the delectation of the loved ones at home, mainly devoted 

 to the birds and animals seen or conjectured on the 

 voyage, and illustrated by coloured drawings of everything 

 that seemed paintable, such as whales spouting ; porpoises 

 leaping and plunging ; petrels, boatswain-birds, " hog- 

 downs," and other birds ; Portuguese men-o'-war (Physalia), 

 of which curious and gorgeous beings they encountered 

 several ; icebergs ; Cape St. Francis from seaward, and 

 the like. All this, though the adventures which were 

 chronicled were small and trite, was excellent exercise 

 both for pencil and pen. It was while on the Atlantic 

 that the lad found himself, almost suddenly, to have 

 acquired the art of finishing a drawing — of " working-up," 

 as it was termed in the profession of miniature-painting. 



During this voyage, Philip Gosse scrupulously obeyed 

 what had been his mother's final injunction, that he should 

 read his Bible daily. No one else in the ship had culti- 

 vated the same habit, and, as there was no opportunity 

 for retirement, and as the lad was obliged to brave 



