breaking over the ship.  During the worst of the gale one man was washed overboard but his loss was not discovered for nearly twenty minutes, and even if it had been, nothing could have been done to save him in such tremendous seas.  Clark Russell says that the grandeur and sublimity of the ocean can be best seen on a yard arm during a gale of wind, but somehow I have not been able to make those words applicable to the gales through which I have passed.  Through our ninety degrees of Easting I had but little exercise.  The lee side of the cabin usually found me with my books, work and numerous small articles for ready use.  I think the most exercise I had during those days was when I tried to dress, as it was almost impossible to stand in one spot any length of time on account of the rolling and pitching of the ship.  With a firm stand I would place myself in front of my mirror, only to gradually slide away across the room to a lounge where I would sit down, then I would climb back, and with as much speed as possible do what I could before disappearing again.  In a length of time I was able to make my toilet, and when made it was not changed during the day in those latitudes.

They were certainly strenuous days, but we were well and had good appetites for the excellent meals which were served to us by our capable Chinese steward and cook.  The doings and sayings of our cabin boy would fill a book, but he was trustworthy and attended faithfully to our wants.  One night after I had retired, a heavy thunder storm came up which might have caused us considerable trouble had not our usual strict discipline been carried out.  Having become so used to confused sounds on deck I did not realize that the ship had been struck by lightning, though I heard a sound which in my dozing condition I laid to something falling down in the bathroom.  When the Captain came in to ask if I were all right I sleepily said, “Why not?  I think something has fallen down.”  He did not tell me until morning that the ship had been struck and had caught fire aloft.  By changing the course the sparks were made to fall overboard while men were sent aloft to cut away the blazing fragments.  About ten minutes before the vessel was struck, a dozen men were aloft furling a sail just where the lightning struck us, and when the storm was over it seemed a special act of Providence that we still had these men with us.

I have so often been asked what could we possibly have to eat that would be appetizing for such lengthy voyages.  We always carried fowl in large numbers and it was very seldom that we did not have fresh eggs enough for our table during the voyage.  Potatoes, onions, and lemons we always had in abundance and they were very important items of our food.  The following is one of the menus served to us on quite a stormy day as we were running across the Indian Ocean.  For breakfast:  baked beans, fish balls, brown bread, hot biscuits, tea and coffee.  For dinner:  soup, roast chicken, cold tongue, boiled potatoes, squash, and onions, English pudding, hard sauce, and coffee.  For supper:  warm biscuit, cold chicken, cold tongue, fried potatoes, cake and tea.  In fine weather our menus were more elaborate and I never knew any one to complain of being hungry aboard ship while I was going to sea.