furs and overcoats we swelter in garments of thinnest
texture. Sea-sick sleepers crawl from their cabins
and stretch themselves about the deck. Northern
energy with northern frosts are melted out of the
man ; mind and muscle relax their tension ; there is a
general letting down of the system, lassitude and
ennui steal over the senses ; perspiration oozes from
every pore and stands in great beads upon the sur-
face, or flows off" in rivulets. Clothes are saturated,
and respiration lengthens and becomes more difficult.
Even reading and card-playing are abandoned as re-
quiring too much exertion. Scandal-making sets in ;
women of easy virtue grow bold, and pimpish men
throw off" reserve and flaunt the true colors of their
character.
In rough weather passengers are very quiet ; it is useless to try to out-rant the ocean, and for this un- doubtedly the ship's officers are thankful, often pre- ferring the unevenness of the sea to the ruffled temp- ers of the hundreds on board. But when the brist- ling waves subside, the voice of the chronic grumbler is heard abusing ship, captain, and all his surround- ing's. His room is small, there are too few hairs in the mattress, and too many cockroaches between the mildewed sheets; some restless fellow has the upper berth, or some squalling children the under. At table, with prominent lower jaw, and open monkey mouth, and sharp teeth, and low forehead with lateral scowl, he keeps up an incessant growling, except during the time required to sweep the food from the table into his capacious mouth. The bread is sour, the butter rank, the fowl and venison insipid, the beef tough, and so on. When those of this category have cursed themselves comfortable, they take to cracking jokes, singing, and gaming.
Here a raw countryman, now become an ambitious searcher for knowledge, earnestly applies himself to the improvement of his little talent by studying certain phenomena which attract his atte
