VOYAGE TO RIO. 



23 



a window cut in my cabin-door to-day, for 

 ventilation. 



Friday, 21st.— Latitude 13° 45', longitude 

 26° 11'. Same wind, N. E. trade. Very little 

 motion. Great monotony and want of excite- 

 ment. Whist every night in the cabin. Read- 

 ing, walking, and eating, employ the day. I 

 sometimes walk part of the middle watch with 

 the officer on duty. Then is the time to ad- 

 mire the moonlight streaming along the waves, 

 which, breaking at their summit, appear all be- 

 spangled with liquid illumination ; or if a cloud 

 obscures the moon, how beautiful is the effect 

 of the phosphorescent water, through which 

 the ship is ploughing her "arrowy" way ! 



I fished out of the cabin-window with a 

 towel, for some of these glowing flakes astern, 

 and on straining through the towel the ani- 

 malcula which cause them, and shaking it in the 



