Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/66

 The nights are cruelly hot. I cannot think why they are so much worse than the days, for we leave all our doors and windows open, but nothing will make a draught.

Fanny and I have been on the lee-side of the ship almost the whole way (which means the side on which the wind does not blow, not the weather-side), and we have generally thought it great luck, as it allows us to have our windows open without any danger of shipping a sea; but it makes our cabins very close now, and I should think gives us a good foretaste of Calcutta. ’s greyhound has added three small puppies to the population, and one of the horses has been ill, and a tame hawk fell overboard and was drowned, and these are the chief incidents among the live stock.

I bought an album at the Cape, to be called the ‘Jupiter’s Album,’ and invited all the officers to contribute to it, and the idea took their fancies, and set all the ship’s company off drawing. Most of them can draw more or less, and out of the twenty-four drawings they have sent in, there are ten, at least, really very good, some tolerable, and those that are the worst are