128 ELIZABETH CARY 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- 
panionway 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. CARY 
Off Bahia Blanca, March 3 
THE next morning [after leaving Monte Video] we had 
a dredging which was a delightful chance for Agassiz. 
