A Voyage from San Francisco to Tahiti 429 



July 18. — We left at 10.30 a. m., the 

 ship's upper deck bemg hung with 

 bunches of bananas. As we went out of 

 the harbor we passed wonderful green- 

 yellow water inside the barrier reef, and 

 we went over to the Island of Mourea 

 (described in Melville's Omoo) to give 

 the passengers a chance to visit it on 

 the side not distinctly seen from Tahiti. 

 It is very irregular in outline, with 

 much finer cliffs than on Otaheite, and 

 has one or two beautiful bays said to 

 be good harbors. I understand that it 

 would not be difficult to secure the whole 

 island for a small sum. 



We turned and went northward, bid- 

 ding a good-bye to Tahiti and its 

 " Diadem," which we are never likely 

 to see again. 



July ig. — The vessel rolls a good deal. 

 The temperature is pleasant. 



After lunch, weighed the stone which 

 I got from those used in the fire-walk. 

 It weighs 65 pounds, is about 15 inches 

 in its longer diameter, and displaces 3^ 

 imperial gallons of water. After weigh- 

 ing, it was thrown overboard, a piece 

 having been broken off to take home 

 with me.* 



*■ When I reached Washington I found it to 

 be so porous that its specific gravity was but 

 2.39 and so non-conductible that a small frag- 

 ment could be held in the fingers like a stick of 



July 20-2^. — On the 23d the sea al- 

 most glassy, reflecting the clouds. 



On the 24th the smoke ceases to blow 

 southwest from the funnel, and blows 

 nearly south. The weather is still warm, 

 but shows signs of getting cooler. 



On the 25th, I think, or some later 

 day which I did not note in my diary 

 at the time, the whole sea around the 

 ship seemed to be animated with spout- 

 ing whales. We could see them at a 

 distance as they rolled or played ; and 

 once a great shining black back, 20 to 

 30 feet of which was out of water, came 

 directly toward the quarter of the ship, 

 and was so near that we could have 

 thrown a stone on it, when, apparently 

 catching sight of the vessel, I^eviathan 

 dove, and made " the deep to boil like a 

 pot," leaving a quarter of an acre of 

 foaming ocean where he had gone down. 



The diary does not appear to have 

 been kept up for the next few days, 

 which were pleasant, but uneventful. 



In the early morning of the thirtieth 

 of Julywe waited in a dense fog, and 

 then moved slowly in through the Golden 

 Gate, and reached the dock at San Fran- 

 cisco at about one o'clock. 



sealing wax while the other end was made red- 

 hot in a blow-pipe. This non-conductibility is 

 evidently the principal cause of the success of 

 the fire-walk ' ' miracle. ' ' 



