A damp tigress flew out through the door,
wildly demanding the steward, a set of dry bedding, and the instant
execution of the captain, the officer of the watch, and the man at the
wheel!
How dull we should be without these little incidents!
A hoopoe took deck, or rather rigging, passage for a while, and evoked the
greatest interest. Stalking glasses and binoculars were levelled at the
unconcerned fowl, who sat by the "cathead" with perfect composure, and
preened himself after his long flight.
The striking of "four bells" just under his beak unnerved him somewhat,
and he departed in a great fuss and pother.
Our roomy decks afford many quiet corners in which to read or doze, and
now that the weather is rapidly warming up we spend many hours in these
peaceful pastimes, varied by an occasional constitutional--none of your
fisherman's walks, "three steps and overboard"--but a good, clear tramp,
unimpeded by the innumerable deck-chairs, protruding feet, and ubiquitous
children which cover all free space on board a P. & O.
Then comes dinner, followed by a rubber of bridge, and so to bed.
On Saturday the 11th we passed the group of islands commonly known as the
Twelve Apostles.
First, a tiny rock, rising lonely from the blue--brilliantly blue--waves;
then a yellow crag of sandstone, looking like a haystack; and then a whole
group of wild and fantastic islands, evidently of volcanic origin, and
varying in rough peaks and abrupt cliffs of the strangest
colours--brick-red, purple-black, grey, and yellow--utterly bare and
desolate:
"Nor tree, nor shrub, nor plant, nor flower,
Nor aught of vegetative power,
The weary eye may ken,"
save only the white lighthouse, which, perched on its arid hill, serves to
emphasise the desolation of earth and sky.
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