| Description | William comments of the passage, with temperatures at 85 to 88 degrees, but a steady breeze. They have just passed the ship 'Simlah', which is not making any way. He describes lying on his bench and seeing meteors, which gradually resolved into a steady stream radiating from the south and pasing overhead throught the zenith. All at once there was a 'perfect blaze of them towering up like a full flight of rockets...a hundred at least'. They were going parallel to the Milky Way, into Cassiopeia and on the Pleiades at which point he saw a phenomenon of them stopping short which he was unable to explain. Emma missed the sight which he thinks might not repeat for a hundred years. He notes problems with luggage and the use of powdered and goat's milk on board. He is now in the great bay of the Indian Ocean and expects to reach Aden that night, where he will attempt a camera sketch. On learning that they will not reach Aden until later, he makes an ink sketch from memory. He discusses his liability for income tax, a saddle to be sent for Emma, and the reading of 'Wallenstein' and Hindustani lessons with her, with other readings. |