Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/22

 6 midnight, in order to obtain cool and refreshing sleep. Last night, after my bath, I remained a long time on deck en chemise, without any inconvenience whatever. Thermometer yesterday, lat. 15° 4', in my sleeping cabin stood at 81°; in the afternoon 85°, and on deck 92° 22'. This day we have had a great addition to our live stock, Poor Lass having presented me with nine puppies, five of which were committed to the deep. I have been obliged to keep four, to gratify the urgent solicitations of some of our passengers; but I fear that the mother has not strength or nutriment sufficient, and milk is a scarce article now on board. The dozen bottles which I had brought with me, boiled, corked, and hermetically sealed, soon became sour; even Poor Lass, for whose accouchement I had kept it, since it proved unfit for her master, refuses to drink it;—tell this to all whom it may concern.

The effects of the heat have been proved on our mutton (the sheep which James killed three days ago being quite offensive, though washed with chloride of lime), and still more lamentably on Poor Lass, who is staggering about, restless and feverish, and half frantic; at one time coming down to my cabin, at another wandering about the deck, as if in search of something, and paying little attention to her young ones; indeed her doing so would be of little service, her milk being gone; I have given her medicine, and whatever else I could think of as possibly serviceable to her.

24th.—Poor Lass is no more. I grieve at her death, for she formed a link of associations with home and its inmates. Oh! how bitter are the thoughts of the exile !

How often, and with what intense anxiety, do I contemplate successively the many little memorials of affection and friendship, which are almost always before me! Not only those