The live stock placed on board at Dartmouth was the admiration of every one; and yet, from there not being one man expressly to look after the stock, fowls, ducks, and geese disappeared very quickly, literally dying in the coops from starvation and want of water. At last the gentlemen passengers, as a matter of precaution, made a point of examining the stock every morning, in order that they might see those thrown overboard which had died during the previous night.
On one occasion I recollect seeing eleven dead geese thrown overboard; and from this neglect a vessel that was most liberally found, on starting from England, for the entire voyage to India, ran short of everything before she arrived at the Cape of Good Hope.
The ladies were without a bath during the whole voyage, although there was a comfortable bath-room on board; owing to the pump not being properly fitted, the bath could only be filled once a day, during the time of washing the decks before breakfast. To overcome this difficulty, the stewardess very coolly proposed that a certain number of the ladies should bathe in the same water each day; a proposition which of course found no seconder in those most interested, and in consequence only one lady could enjoy the luxury of a bath per diem.
It was found that 2,000 gallons of fresh water had been destroyed, by letting the salt water run into the tank while washing decks. This water, being impossible to drink, was set aside for washing water, to be used in the cabins. Jenkins thought that pure salt water was equally as good for washing the body, and therefore supplied the cabins with the “pure element,” while he disposed of that which was brackish to those who were glad to pay him for the same.
Soon after we had entered the North East Trade Wind, and more especially when passing the Cape de Verde Islands, the atmosphere assumed that hazy appearance so remarkable during the blowing of the Harmattan winds on the west coast of Africa. But on the present occasion I did not experience that dryness of the air of which one is made so sensible during a Harmattan wind. When at the river Gambia, some years previous, the feeling caused by the dryness of the Harmattan wind was, although generally pleasant and very bracing, at times painful; the skin being dried up and wrinkled, and a general feeling, on the surface of the body, as if suffering from an attack of acute rheumatism. The teeth were affected as if one had been using some very strong acid in the mouth, and the bones of the head and face were slightly painful; and yet I am inclined to think that these were not rheumatic affections.
During the prevalence of these winds, I have frequently seen the furniture split, and articles which were veneered considerably damaged; the veneering in some cases being curled up like dried sheets of paper. Books left closed on the table at night would be found on the following morning completely opened, and each leaf standing up as if it had been highly stiffened with gum. At such times glass tumblers would break, apparently of their own accord; and I have known one slight tap given to a tumbler made of blown-glass, not only to break it, but, as if by sympathy, others remotely placed in different parts of the room.
When in the latitude of the Cape de Verde Islands on former occasions, at about this season of the year, and with the same hazy appearance, I have succeeded in obtaining some of the red Atlantic dust which is found to fall upon the rigging and decks of vessels. This dust was supposed for a long time to be carried by the north-east trade wind from the desert of Africa into the Atlantic; but it has been shown more recently, by Professor Ehrenberg, to consist, in great part, of infusoria with siliceous shields, and of the siliceous tissue of plants. Although many species of infusoria peculiar to Africa are known to Professor Ehrenberg, he has, I believe, found none of those in this Red Atlantic Dust examined by him. But, on the other hand, he has discovered in it two species hitherto known to him as living only in South America. At the season when this dust is so very plentiful in the air about the Cape de Verde Islands, the valley of the Orinoco is dry; and as the strong winds which sweep at that period of the year, over the valley of the Orinoco, are known to blow towards the Southern Andes, at the time when much vapour is condensed on that chain, and strong ascending currents of air are thereby created, it is held by writers on the Trade Winds, that this dust is carried to the eastward by an upper current of air, which again naturally falls to the earth, where the lower, or north-eastern, current commences.
In accordance with the above theory, Lieutenant Maury, of the United States Navy, concludes, with much apparent confidence, that this Red Atlantic Dust comes originally from South America; and it is even stated that it is carried by the south-west or upper current over Africa, and that some of this dust has even reached Germany and other parts of Europe.
It certainly is one of the most interesting phenomena of nature, throwing great light on the aërial currents, and one of which there are too many attesting witnesses to cause it to be doubted. This Red Atlantic Dust has often fallen on ship’s decks, when even one thousand miles distant from the African coast, and at points upwards of 1500 miles distant from each other in a north and south direction; showing over what an immense area of the Atlantic this phenomenon may be observed.
I can easily believe that vessels have run on shore, owing to the obscurity of the atmosphere, in this part of the ocean, for I have observed that large vessels were hardly visible at the distance of a mile from this cause; and navigators must have suffered great anxiety from the difficulty of making good observations at this, our winter season, in those latitudes.