seed stores sell a great variety of flowering plants; instead of buying
sweet pea seeds here, you buy sweet pea plants five of six inches
high. At one store in Adelaide, I saw a dozen different varieties of
plants put up in small bunches, and offered at reasonable prices....
Australia and New Zealand are very Progressive, when active and
powerful labor unions are concerned, but not a great deal is done
for the quiet and patient farmers; there are no rural mail routes in
either country.... There are more banks, trust companies, loan
companies, etc., in Australian cities, it seems to me, than elsewhere.
In some sections of the large towns I see almost nothing but financial
institutions for blocks.... The people here not only know I am from
the United States, but they know what section I am from. “You are
not a New-Yorker?” a gentleman said to me this morning. I told him I
was from Kansas. “My guess was Denver,” he said. He came within five
hundred miles of locating me.... At all the hotels, we have noticed
that the maids have false teeth. There is something in the water that
is injurious to teeth; you see advertisements in the papers offering
a remedy. In Australia, probably you see three times as many women
with full sets of false teeth as you see elsewhere. And dentists here
are like dentists everywhere, in that their false teeth can always
be promptly detected.... The duck-bill, interesting because it is
an egg-laying mammal, is found in Australia. It is supposed that at
one time all mammals were egg-laying; later, these early mammals were
replaced by more highly organized descendants. The duck-bill has a bill
like a duck, fur like a mole, webbed feet, and is about as large as a
terrier dog. It burrows in the bank, as a muskrat does, and thousands
of learned men have journeyed to Australia to see it, as an interesting
and rare link in the chain of life. An ant-eater having a bear-like
snout, and also an egg-laying mammal, is found in Australia. Egg-laying
mammals are found nowhere else in the world.... I have heard it said
that the women of Australia are a year or two behind New York or London
in the fashions. I do not know as to that, but it is certainly true
that the shop girls in Adelaide are just adopting the big bunches of
hair with which American shop girls disfigured their heads a good many
months ago.... At 4 o’clock this afternoon we walked to the railroad
station, and took a train for the Outer Harbor, to go on board the
“Anchises.” The distance is fourteen miles, and the train made so many
stops that we did not get our first sight of the ship until an hour
later. It was lying not a hundred yards from the station where we left
the train, and we went aboard at once. The Outer Harbor is a lonely
place; nothing there except a railroad station and a loading-dock.
Most of the passengers had joined the ship at Sydney or Melbourne,
and looked us over critically as we walked up the gang-plank. I
found I had a large room to myself, on the upper deck, and Adelaide
had one just like it. Our baggage having been sent in the morning,
we found it waiting for us in our rooms. There are 120 first-class
passengers; no second-class, and no steerage. The ship is two years
old, 508 feet long, with an unusual beam (which means width, and width
means steadiness at sea), and altogether we are well pleased....
An old gentleman and his wife attracted our particular attention
because so many had come to see them off. There were many children and
grandchildren, and after the whistle had warned all visitors to go
ashore, we stood beside the old gentleman and his wife at the rail,
looking at the crowd. A woman in the crowd below was evidently a
married daughter of the old couple we admired, and she had a nurse girl
with her, and the nurse girl was carrying a baby.
“Mother,” the married daughter called out, softly, “did you say good-by
to Daisy?”
Daisy was the nurse girl, and the fine old mother said she had said
good-by to Daisy, but, to make it good measure, she said good-by to her
again.... My room is considerably larger than the one I shared with
three others on the “Maunganui.” I have two chairs, a clothes closet,
and a chest of drawers, all of which were lacking on the “Maunganui.”
On that ship I hadn’t a single hook on which to hang my clothing; in my
room on the “Anchises” there are fifteen hooks. If I live fifty years
longer, at the end of the forty-ninth year I shall still be telling
with indignation of my room on the “Maunganui.” Four men in a room nine
by ten feet is as bad as asking four men to use one bathtub at the same
time.... At exactly 6 P. M. we got away as advertised.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13.—When we awoke this morning, rain was falling,
and a heavy sea running, but owing to the ship’s unusual width, 60
feet, we did not mind the motion, and went down to breakfast in good
humor. One of the stewards informs me that he has worked on many ships,
and that the “Anchises” is the steadiest of them all. The weather is
bad, but not many are seasick.... A lady at our table has five
children and two nurses with her. “And,” added her husband, “at sea,
five are quite enough.” These children are all boys, except one, and
this girl is known as Tom, she is such a Tom-boy. The girl knows
nothing about girls, and has never played with them, and the mother is
rather glad of it: usually a Tom-boy humiliates a mother.... The
passengers are very nice; a better lot than we met on the “Maheno” or
“Maunganui.” Most of them are making the long journey to England....
We are now in the great Australian Bight, which, on the map, makes
Australia look upside down. The rough weather of the voyage is usually
encountered in the Bight.... In 1806, a certain Captain Bligh was
appointed governor of Australia. This is the Bligh associated with the
mutiny of the ship “Bounty,” one of the most thrilling stories of the
sea. Some time prior to 1806, Bligh, as commander of H. M. S. “Bounty,”
was sent to the South Sea Islands after trees and plants to be taken
to the West Indies; the English have always been noted for trying to
improve their possessions. I have forgotten the name of the island
where Bligh went with the “Bounty,” but will call it Island No. 1. He
remained there a considerable time; long enough for his sailors to
become well acquainted with the natives. Finally, when the “Bounty”
sailed for the West Indies, the sailors were mutinous, as they had made
friends in Island No. 1, and did not wish to leave. Captain Bligh was
a hard man, and, noting the discontent of the sailors, gave them extra
duties; if there was nothing else for them to do, he made them polish
the anchor. One night, as Captain Bligh sat in his cabin, he was seized
from behind by three sailors. He was bluntly told to get into one of
the small boats, and row where he pleased; the sailors said they were
going back to their native wives and friends at Island No. 1. Seventeen
members of the crew, including all the officers, chose to go with the
captain, and, with a scant supply of water and provisions, were set
adrift in an open boat. Captain Bligh was cruel and ill-tempered, but
an able seaman, and, after a voyage of four thousand miles, landed
on the coast of Java. Most of his companions died as a result of the
hardships through which they passed.... But the history of the
mutineers is still more interesting. They returned to Island No. 1
in the “Bounty,” and, collecting their wives and other particular
friends among the natives, set sail for a remote island one of them
knew about. I have forgotten the name of this island, too, though it is
possibly Pitcairn, but I shall call it Island No. 2. Arriving at Island
No. 2, the “Bounty” was burned, after being robbed of all its guns,
furniture and supplies.... The mutineers quarreled a good deal among
themselves; mainly about women. Every sailor had two or three wives,
and the natives of Island No. 1 did not get along very well with the
natives of Island No. 2. Many murders were committed, and at the end
of twenty years only two of the original mutineers remained. These two
had scores of half-breed children, many of them grown.... One day a
sailing-ship stopped at Island No. 2, the first seen there since the
mutineers landed, many years before. The captain knew the story of the
“Bounty,” and rightly guessed that the two old sailors must have been
members of the mutinous crew. On his return to England, he reported his
discovery, and gave the authorities a chart by which the lonely island
might be found. Soon after, a ship was dispatched to arrest and bring
back the only two of the mutineers remaining.... After a voyage of
months, the captain of the ship returned to England and made a strange
report. He said he found the two mutineers had become preachers, and
were doing wonderfully good work among the natives. The two old men
had entire control of the island, and controlled it in the interest of
decency and civilization; having become old, the last of the mutineers
had quit quarreling over women, and were looking carefully after their
stomachs and souls. The captain of the ship concluded it was best
to let the two old men alone; and the English government shared his
opinion. A few years later, the old men died, greatly to the regret of
a large number of half-breed relatives. Captain Trask, of the “Sonoma,”
once called at Island No. 2, when in command of a sailing-ship, and
met both of the old mutineers; it was Captain Trask who told me the
story I have briefly outlined.... Captain Bligh also had trouble as
governor of Australia. He quarreled with nearly everybody, and finally
was deposed by force. On his promise to return to England direct, he
went aboard a waiting vessel; but he broke his word, and sailed to
Tasmania instead. There he tried to force the people to receive him
back as governor, but they soon grew tired of him, and forced him to
leave the island. The result of it all was that Captain Bligh was made
governor of Australia again, but for only twenty-four hours; the king
probably realized that Bligh was quarrelsome, and no one was punished
much for impudence to him. Finally Bligh was made an admiral, and that
probably satisfied him.... The early days of Australia, when Bligh
was governor, were very rough. The convict settlers had little fear and
no respect for anyone, and did about as they pleased. In those days,
drunkenness and crime were rampant, and the only way to make money was
to sell whisky, pistols and bowie-knives.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14.—Rain fell again this morning, but the sea is
smoother, and we have an excellent prospect of getting out of the
Bight without serious trouble. After passing out of the Bight we shall
enter a section of the ocean where the air is said to be particularly
pure and invigorating; it comes from the pole without contamination
with land, and many old, nervous men come to take a whiff of it on
the advice of physicians.... Every morning we are offered iced
watermelon for breakfast. It is said to be an American idea, but I
have never heard of it before.... Every passenger is assigned to a
place in a lifeboat, in case of emergency. I think this is a new idea
since the sinking of the “Titanic.” I found this notice in my room:
“IMPORTANT.—Your boat is No. 8 port. At your earliest convenience
please make yourself acquainted with the position of your boat station.
The boat station numbers are marked on the promenade deck rail,
immediately below each boat, and your boat station is there. If the
emergency arises, go to your boat station, and submit yourself to the
orders of the man in charge.”... Adelaide has been assigned to boat
No. 2 port, so that in case of emergency we shall be separated; she
might land on one island, and I on another. I find that the gentleman
and wife who have five children and two nurses, are also assigned to
my lifeboat, No. 8. But I shall not think of the necessity of spending
days or weeks in an open boat with a family of five children; it would
be worse than my experience on the “Maunganui.”... There is an
Eurasian on board. He is supposed to be as good as anybody, but there
seems to be a prejudice against him. An Eurasian is the son or daughter
of an European and Asiatic; the term particularly applies to the
offspring of natives and whites in India. Some of the Eurasian women
are very handsome, but their social position is so bad that many of the
more sensitive ones commit suicide.... The “Anchises” is not fast;
its run from noon on Thursday to noon today was only 326 miles. The
ship has one custom which is entirely new to me: the time is changed
every time a watch goes off duty. At sea, the watch consists of the
officer and men in charge at any particular time. As a result, the
time changes three or four times a day. On most ships the clock in
the companion way is set back or forward at midnight, and there is not
another change for twenty-four hours.
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.