It was a
lovely moonlight night, but very hot, though we found a delightful
sleeping-place beneath the awning on deck.
_Monday, March 26th_.--The sun appeared to rise even fiercer and
hotter than ever this morning. I have been very anxious for the last
few days about Baby, who has been cutting some teeth and has suffered
from a rash. Muriel has been bitten all over by mosquitoes, and
Mabelle has also suffered from heat-rash. Just now every little
ailment suggests small-pox to our minds.
About noon, when in latitude 6.25 North, and in longitude 88.25 East,
we began to encounter a great deal of drift wood, many large trees,
branches, plants, leaves, nautilus shells, back-bones of cuttlefish,
and, in addition, large quantities of yellow spawn, evidently
deposited by some fish of large size. The spawn appeared to be of a
very solid, consistent character, like large yellow grapes, connected
together in a sort of gelatinous mass. It formed a continuous wide
yellow streak perhaps half a mile in length, and with the bits of wood
and branches sticking up in its midst at intervals, it would not have
required a very lively imagination to fashion it at a little distance
into a sea serpent. Where does all this _debris_ come from? was the
question asked by everybody.
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