-36- 
there were crates and cages piled up so close to the port that I 
began to realize we were not going to be out of the sight or sound 
of our charges for a moment. 
A huge crowd was down to see the ship off , and all our 
friends were there too - the Henrys, Browns, mavises, fucks, Holm- 
bergs, Cinaghis, Grether s , Antelo , Copley, etc. be sailed at 
eight, and wearily ate dinner and went to bed. 
But not to sleep. The night was cold and r<w, and we closed 
our porthole, but even so the calls of various small beasts and 
birds mingled with the creaking and groaning of the ship. A 
peculiar rustling in the cabin itself bothered me for some time, 
and I f i nally sat up in bed, looked toward the door , and in the 
eerie light that came in through the ventilators I saw a pro- 
cession of enormous turtles slowly forming arid spreading out oo 
cover the stateroom floor . Tom Davis* turtles, delivered to us 
at the last moment in a burlap sack, were exploring.^ Tney were 
bigger than dinner plates, long-necked, with pointed 
nosea, and they looked to me at the moment like something out of 
an Inferno. I woke Bill, who ’was even more tired than I was, 
and twice as cross. He protested that the turtles wouldn t do 
any harm, let ’em walk around till morning, but I had vi si ons 
of them getting behind trunks and under bureaus, and not being 
found until they began to smell bad, and finally persuaded him 
to get up and put them hack in the sack* and furthermore o 
the sack with a piece of string. 
June 10 - At Sea 
The day was cold and rough. Both Bills worked all day 
straightening out cages, and getting a semblance of order in the 
menagerie. At night it was too rough to sleep - the rocking motion 
threw us alternately against the wall, and the outside edge of tn„ 
bed, and I stayed awake all night just with the eff art of keeping 
in bed. Furniture slid around and crashing noises mace us 
listen for trouble in the animal quarters, but no damage was 
done except to Bill’s brand-new bottle of bay rum, which upset 
and ran all over the floor. 
June 11 * At 3ea 
Weather still cold and rough. Half the passengers have 
not vet put in an appearance. The animal quarters are beginning 
to take shape, and Frances and I were allowed to feed the ba y 
ostriches, the two big ones, the screamers, and the -atagoman 
cavies. 
It is still difficult to get any sleep. This morning I had 
just dozed off, when at seven o'clock the steward stuck his Head, m 
the door to say that a bird was out. Bill trotted out on ecx 
with a large bath towel over his arm, caught one of the screamers 
and put it back in its cage. 
