letter I.] CALMS IN THE TROPICS. n 



beautifully polished long black claws, with which he hangs on 

 *>ead downwards. His body is about twice the size of that of 

 a very large rat, black and furry underneath, and with red, foxy 

 fur on the head and back. His face is pointed, with a very 

 black nose and prominent black eyes with a savage, remorse- 

 less expression. His wings, when extended, measure forty- 

 eight inches across, and his flying powers are prodigious. He 

 snapped like a dog at first, but is now quite tame, and devours 

 quantities of dried figs, the only diet he will eat. 



We crossed the Equator in Long. 159 44' W., but in con- 

 sequence of the misty weather it was not till we reached 

 Lat. io° 6' N. that the Pole star, cold and pure, glistened far 

 above the horizon, and two hours later we saw the coruscating 

 Pleiades, and the starry belt of Orion, the blessed familiar 

 constellations of " auld lang syne," and a " breath of the cool 

 north," the first I have felt for five months, fanned the tropic 

 night and the calm, silvery Pacific. From that time we have 

 been indifferent to our crawling pace, except for the sick man's 

 sake. The days dawn in rose colour and die in gold, and 

 through their long hours a sea of delicious blue shimmers 

 beneath the sun, so soft, so blue, so dreamlike, an ocean 

 worthy of its name, the enchanted region of perpetual calm, 

 and an endless summer. Far off, for many an azure league, 

 rims of rock, fringed with the graceful coco palm, girdle still 

 lagoons, and are themselves encircled by coral reefs on which 

 the ocean breaks all the year in broad drifts of foam. Myriads 

 of flying fish, and a few dolphins and Portuguese men-of-war 

 flash or float through the scarcely undulating water. But we 

 look in vain for the " sails of silk and ropes of sendal " which 

 are alone appropriate to this dream-world. The Pacific in this 

 region is an indolent, blue expanse, pure and lonely, an almost 

 untraversed sea. We revel in these tropic days of transcendent 

 glory, in the balmy breath which just stirs the dreamy blue, in 

 the brief, fierce crimson sunsets, in the soft splendour of the 

 nights, when the moon and stars hang like lamps out of a lofty 

 and distant vault, and in the pearly crystalline dawns, when the 

 sun rising through a veil of rose and gold "rejoices as a giant 

 to run his course," and brightens by no " pale gradations " into 

 the a perfect day." 



P.S. — To-morrow morning we expect to sight land. In spite 

 of minor evils, our voyage has been a singularly pleasant one. 

 The condition of the ship and her machinery warrants the 



