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
