There was occasionally a dead body to be consigned to a watery
grave.
A few days out from here and we were again mustered as before to show
our tickets, which were carefully examined.
It seemed strange to me that the water was the poorest fare we had. It
was sickish tasting stuff, and so warm it would do very well for
dish-water.
There were many interesting things to see. Sometimes it would be
spouting whales; sometimes great black masses rolling on the water,
looking like a ship bottom upward, which some said were black-fish. Some
fish seemed to be at play, and would jump ten feet or more out of the
water. The flying fish would skim over the waves as the ship's wheels
seemed to frighten them; and we went through a hundred acres of
porpoises, all going the same way. The ship plowed right through them,
but none seemed to get hurt by the wheels. Perhaps they were emigrants
like ourselves in search of a better place.
It now became terribly hot, and the sun was nearly overhead at noon.
Sometimes a shark could be seen along-side, and though he seemed to make
no effort, easily kept up with the moving ship. Occasionally we saw a
sea snake navigating the ocean all by himself. I did not understand how
these fellows went to sea and lived so far from land. The flying fish
seemed to be more plentiful as we went along, and would leave the water
and scud along before us.
We had evening concerts on the forecastle, managed by the sailors. Their
songs were not sacred songs by any means, and many of them hardly fit to
be heard by delicate ears.
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