Part 14

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15.—People living in a dry country a long way from the sea do not realize that it covers three-quarters of the surface of the earth. Ninety-six per cent of the water in the ocean is pure fresh water, yet so great is the bulk of sea-water that the total amount of salt dissolved in it, if deposited in a layer over the surface of the land, would make a bed over four hundred feet thick.... No one is able to say what is the source of the salt in the ocean. Probably the sea has always been salt, having become so when first the waters gathered on the surface of the globe; but all rivers that flow over the land carry salt, which they have obtained from the rocks and soil, so the sea is probably becoming saltier all the time, just as some lakes without outlet are being transformed to salt seas.... Off the coast of Australia for fifty or a hundred miles, the sea is two hundred to four hundred feet deep, but the depth grows greater as you leave the land, and between Australia and Africa, in places, the depth is more than five and a half miles, being greater than the elevation of the highest land above the sea-level. It has been calculated that the average depth of the ocean is more than 12,000 feet. The plains of the ocean bottom are the most extensive in the world. Here and there these plains are relieved by single peaks, like Bermuda, or groups of peaks, like the Hawaiian Islands.... On the bottom of the ocean there is a constant rain of sediment, formed by the death of animals which have taken carbonate of lime from the waters, and built it into shells and skeletons, which, when they die, falls to the sea bottom. The sea-bed is made of an ooze chiefly composed of remnants of these shells.... The cause of waves is friction of the wind. Waves rarely rise more than twenty or thirty feet; waves sixty feet high have been noted, counting from the lowest point of the trough to the highest point of the crest, but this is very unusual. A wave of large dimensions affects the sea to a depth of two or three hundred feet, and may last for a long time after its cause has disappeared; travelers in ships often run into a rough sea when the sun is shining brightly, and there is no wind. These big waves also cause destruction on the beaches, and the shore-line is always being worn away.... In most parts of the earth, the tide rises twice each day; every twelve hours and twenty-five minutes there is a high tide, with a low tide between. At Key West the tide rises only two or three feet; in some other places the tide rises sixty feet, and comes in as fast as a man can run. It is believed that in some way the tide is caused by the moon.... The sea is more interesting than the surface of the earth, but its story is scarcely intelligible to those who have not been trained in the alphabet of zoölogical technicalities. I read a book today about the sea, and have a headache from trying to understand it. All our rain comes from the ocean; it is said that the evaporation of the Red Sea amounts to eight feet per year, owing to the great heat of the countries surrounding it. One of the most important facts that has been established by modern investigation of the sea is, that there is no region in its vast extent that is devoid of life. Strange animals are found at the greatest depth the trawls of man have penetrated, and very wonderful are some of the forms of life found. The three great laws of nature are self-protection, food, and reproduction, and here the sea has wonderful tales to tell. Some sea animals reproduce by simply dropping a piece of their body, and other forms of marine life are so low that we can barely understand that it is life. There is a fish which hides from enemies by shaking its fins in such a manner as to scatter a considerable quantity of sand over its body. Another fish poisons its enemies; another gives a strong electric shock. Many fish are colored like the bottom of the sea, to escape their enemies; others resemble sea-weeds. And the sea is a vast slaughter-house; fish feed upon one another, and constant warfare is going on. The whelk attacks and devours animals as large as itself; hidden in the recesses of the whelk’s mouth there is a ribbon beset with numerous sharp little teeth, which, by a complicated mechanism, can be worked backwards and forwards in such a manner that it can bore a hole through very thick and dense shells; and, the soft parts being reached, a tube is protruded which dissolves and sucks them up into the animal’s stomach. Certain of the cuttle-fishes, as they pass slowly through the water from one point to another, are able to change the color of the skin so as to resemble the color of the rocks or weeds which are below them. Another very interesting feature presented by these animals is their ability to discharge suddenly a cloud of inky substance into the water, and are thus able to escape pursuit.... The corals are so numerous that they build great islands, very much as bees construct honeycomb. Some of these coral reefs are highly colored; when seen from a boat through two or three feet of water, they look more like a flower-bed than a mass of animals. The corals are so abundant that rocky islands hundreds of miles in extent are composed of their shells and skeletons.... You have heard of the phosphorescent light often seen on the surface of the sea. This light is caused by millions of little animals which emit a light, and they are so numerous that it is frequently possible to read at midnight on the deck of a ship. The same little animals may be seen in the water of your bath, if taken on shipboard at night.... On certain parts of the coast of the Samoan Islands, where we were a few weeks ago, the Palolo worm appears in great abundance in the early morning hours of one or two days at the beginning of the third quarter of the moon, in the months of October and November. As the worm is regarded as a very great delicacy by the natives, the days of its appearance are looked upon as the red-letter days of the year. It appears just at the beginning of dawn, in countless millions, on a date which may be accurately foretold by those familiar with the moon’s phases. As soon as the sun appears, the millions of worms disappear, and are not heard of again until another year.... There are fish that fly, as every traveler by sea can attest, and it is to avoid the bonito that the flying-fish leave the water. The bonito is able to leap fifteen feet into the air, which ability it acquired in pursuing its favorite food.... The largest existing animal, the blue whale, is found in the sea, and it attains the enormous length of eighty-six feet. Although living in the sea, the blue whales are air-breathers. They are able, however, to hold their breath for a considerable time under water. When they come to the surface to renew the air supply in their lungs, they first make a violent expiratory effort from the nostril, and drive a column of spray many feet into the air above them. This phenomenon is called “spouting,” and whalers are thus able to locate the animals. The skin of whales is often beset with barnacles, some species of which are found nowhere else but on these mammals. Parasitism is very common in the sea, and sometimes as many as four animals are found dependent on each other.... Some sea-water animals can only be induced to live in the aquarium when the water is kept as pure as it is in the open sea; on the other hand, several of the crustacea seem to flourish best in stinking and putrescent pools.... It is a fact generally accepted by learned men, that all animals are originally derived from ancestors that lived in the sea. In the birds and reptiles, as well as in the mammals, many things clearly indicate that their ancestors in remote periods, lived in water, and not on dry land. And when we consult the botanists, and find that they agree that all plants must have had a marine origin also, the case for the sea being the original home of all living organisms may be said to be complete.... We cannot tell in what form life first appeared upon the earth. Whether the unstable living substance called protoplasm was in the earliest conditions of the earth formed spontaneously by the chance combination of its elements, or whether some germ or other made a hazardous journey through space from another planet enwrapped in the casing of a meteorite, are questions upon which no light has yet been thrown by scientific observation or speculation. The majority of scholars believe that life originated at the bottom of shallow waters, or on the surface of the seas. Several naturalists believe that some free-swimming form of jelly-fish was the ancestor, and that from this simple start came, by millions of years of evolution, every living thing.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16.—The tallest man I have ever seen in private life turns out to be a clergyman of the Church of England, and early this morning he conducted holy communion in the music-room, which was attended by about a dozen women. At 11 A. M. he held another service, which attracted twenty-five or thirty. Both services were announced by tolling the dinner-gong like a church-bell. We call the tall man our pastor, and he will seem quite like it after we have been associated with him all the way to Durban. I have spent Sunday on three other ships, but no religious services were held.... Every Englishman, before he has known an American long, refers to the amusing manner in which Americans eat green corn off the cob. I suppose that seeing a room full of Americans eating corn off the cob is a funny sight that only foreigners can appreciate. An Englishman who sits at our table, and who lives at Johannesburg, says roasting-ears are widely grown in South Africa, and that Englishmen there eat them in American fashion. In Australia, I noted that green corn is sold in fruit stores, as a rarity; I never saw it at the vegetable markets, or in the grocery stores. Australian and New Zealand gardeners do not raise the variety of vegetables we have in the United States.... There are fifteen children and a phonograph on board, so we do not lack for noise. The children are better behaved than American children, and under more control; the phonograph is of American make, a Victor, with wooden horn. There are five nurses with the children; one of them is employed by the tall clergyman. American clergymen are not so prosperous, as a rule, that they travel with nurses.... It is so dull on board that last evening the passengers went down to dinner at seven o’clock, and remained at the tables until 8:10. The “Anchises” is introducing an innovation which pleases me: it gives the passengers better rooms, and less to eat. We have plenty, but on some ships there is so much to eat that the passengers are tempted beyond resistance, and eat too much.... We have been passing the western point of Australia today, and the sea has been rough. But the “Anchises” has such a gentlemanly roll that we do not mind it. The ship has ten thousand tons of cargo in its hold, and cannot skip about as do ships lightly loaded. From Adelaide to Albany, the western point of Australia, there is no railroad. The distance is twelve or fourteen hundred miles. Had the government kept out of the railroad business, private capital would have built that gap long ago, and passengers from Australia to South Africa might avoid four days of sea-travel. We followed the ship by rail from Sydney, and would have followed it to Albany, had there been a railroad to that place from Adelaide.... The weather has been chilly, but the latter part of this week we will run into warm weather, which will continue until we reach home. As a result of the raw, chilly weather, and no heat anywhere on the ship, I had a siege with neuralgia, an entirely new experience for me. The only thing to do was to go to bed and cover up well, with a hot-water bag to my jaw. Fortunately I have the best steward I have ever drawn on a ship, and he paid me a good deal of attention.... A young Englishman who sits at our table tells a terrible story of Business. He says that in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he lives, he is often compelled to take thirty drinks a day, or lose trade. I would like to tell him what I think of the statement, but do not care to start a row on board. Any man who says he is forced to drink intoxicants or lose trade, tells a silly falsehood. A drinking man usually admires a man who doesn’t drink. The men who have been most successful in business have not been noted as boozers. But while I didn’t tell the young man what I thought of his statement, an elderly Englishman did. “The Americans,” the elderly Englishman said, “are the smartest business men in the world, and they do not drink as much as we do. And the drinking habit in America is becoming more unpopular every day, and will finally become disreputable.” I have noticed that while most Englishmen “pick” at Americans, they really have a high opinion of them.... I have spent part of the day reading a book entitled, “Around Cape Horn.” It is a common sailor’s experience in sailing from San Francisco to Liverpool. For weeks the ship had terrible weather; it seemed that wreck was inevitable almost every hour of the voyage. I am of the opinion that the writer made the voyage much worse than it really was, in order that he might have a tale that would appeal to publishers. I have spent many weeks at sea, on many ships, but have never experienced any of the rough weather this writer tells about. I have experienced much disagreeable weather at sea, but I have never seen a ship in any danger of swamping. The stories of storms at sea remind me of stories of battles. There will be a perfect rain of shot and shell; pandemonium will reign, and, from the book account, it would seem that not a single man could live to tell the tale. But when the casualties are listed, it is found that only two men were slightly wounded. What a terrific affair the Battle of Manila Bay was! Yet not a single man in Admiral Dewey’s fleet was struck by shot or shell, although the engagement lasted for hours.... The man who has a wife and five children, and two nurses, on board, was talking to me today.

“I suppose you have heard,” he said, “that a young man may marry, and his expenses will be less than before; in short, that two may live on less than one?”

I replied that I had heard the story.

“Well,” he said, “there is nothing in it.”

From noon yesterday until noon today, the ship’s run was only 312 miles. There was once a famous American sailing-ship, the “Red Jacket,” which did a better average than that for ten consecutive days. But it must have had a great run of luck. Sailingships often make less than a hundred miles a day, and, when the wind is very unfavorable, lose in twenty-four hours all they have made in three or four days.... We are followed every day by the albatross: great birds which sail for hours against the wind without moving a wing. The sailors say that the young, after reaching a certain age, and being made very fat, are deserted by their parents, and have nothing to eat for six months. At the end of that time they are able to fly, and seek food for themselves.... In the smoking-room today I heard a man say that every vicious person may be detected by looking at his ears. If the tops of his ears are as low as his eyes, look out for him; he is dangerous.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17.—The manner in which the male passengers on ships drink coffee in the smoking-room, after dinner, has been getting on my nerves; but just as I was working up a fine case of indignation, I found the custom did not prevail on the “Anchises.” On this ship those men who wish coffee after dinner, drink it in the dining-room, and none is served in the smoking-room. You cannot realize how unusual this new rule is unless you have seen the smoking-rooms of many ships filled with men drinking coffee after dinner. I wonder the captain of the “Anchises” dared order the change, but I have not heard any complaints.... Among our acquaintances are a Mr. and Mrs. Steele, of Sydney. Mr. Steele has been married twice, and talks a good deal about his daughter in London, and his son in Philadelphia. Some widowers who have married again, speak of “our” children, while others say “my” children; just as some men who have been married twice are always talking about it, while others keep quiet, and let you find out about their second marriage if you can. I don’t think Mrs. Steele likes the manner in which he talks about his son in Philadelphia, and his daughter in London, preferring that he say “our” son in Philadelphia and “our” daughter in London. Stepchildren also amuse me; they try so hard to show respect for pa’s new wife, or ma’s new husband, and fail so lamentably. There is always something unusual in a second marriage.... This is our sixth full day on the “Anchises.” Had we been on a fast boat on the Atlantic, we should be landing tomorrow. But this is a long trip, and we are only fairly getting started: we shall not land at Durban until a week from next Monday. Those who came on at Sydney have already been on board fifteen days, and, if they are going to Liverpool, they still have thirty-two days of it. A gentleman and his wife who are at our table came on board at Melbourne, and they will be on board forty-seven days.... Every woman in Australia and New Zealand wears a bracelet watch; the custom seems to be universal. In the United States women wear watches attached to chains of one shape or another, but here it is a universal custom for women to wear watches set in a bracelet on the left wrist.... I believe this is the dullest trip I have ever undertaken, and almost scream with horror when I realize that I shall not see land for another thirteen days. Fortunately we have not been seasick; the “Anchises” is a wonderfully steady boat. But it is as dull on board as on a back street in a country town. Part of the passengers sit on one side of the main deck and part on the other, while some of them sit on the upper or boat deck. All of us walk about a good deal for exercise, and I think we tire of seeing each other go ’round and ’round. One restless woman is going most of the time, and I often hear the others growl: “If that woman would only sit down!” I fear we shall engage in fist fights before we reach Durban.... Two highly respectable spinsters from Australia have attracted my attention. On deck and in the dining-room they are so well behaved that I marvel at them; but this afternoon they became desperate, and left their side of the deck and came over to our side. And at dinner tonight I saw the bolder one looking about the dining-room, hoping to see something to talk about. If these highly respectable women are becoming reckless at the end of six days, what will they be doing in thirteen days more?... A Sports Committee was organized today, to Keep Something Going On. But ship games are about as uninteresting as a Salvation Army street service. A subscription was taken up, to raise money with which to buy prizes for the winners of the games, and I heard it hinted that the promoters expect others to do the giving. There was no great demand for Sports, except in the minds of three or four men. It’s a good deal that way on land when a celebration is held, or a new church built, or money raised for a Y. M. C. A. building. I predict that the Sports Committee will not greatly relieve the dullness. One of the games is a special form of cricket arranged for the sea. A regular game of cricket is so dull that some of our most noted humorists have laughed at it, but sea cricket is much worse.... I was talking today with an Englishman who has lived in Australia a long time, and who married an Australian woman. He says it pleases Australians to be told they are like Americans, and it makes them very angry to be told that they are like the English. He confirms what I have noticed everywhere; that Australians and New Zealanders “pick” at the English constantly.... I am beginning to believe I can see a difference between the colonists and the English, although I couldn’t at first. A woman today told me of her troubles with servants in Australia, and her troubles are exactly like those I hear women complain of at home. There are English nurse girls and Australian nurse girls on board, but they do not mix. The English girls wear nurses’ costumes, but the Australian girls say that is beneath their dignity. One of these Australian nurse girls is not more than twenty years old, and has a full set of false teeth. There are many “American dentists” in Australia (one was shot by his office girl in Melbourne while I was there), and I judge they have a great deal to do.