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ciiAr. i. EVENINGS WITIIIN TIIE TROPICS. 9 interrupted progress was not the only advantage of our voyag ing in a steam-ship: sixty gallons of beautifully clear fresh water were condensed every day, and proved one of our greatest luxuries. Ten days after leaving Plymouth we reached the Island of St. Vincent, and, having replenished our fuel, resumed our voyage on the following day. The difference of temperature, now that we were within the tropics, had produced so great a change in our habits and feelings, that we scarcely seemed to be the same company who, less than a fortnight before, had rarely ventured on deck without extra covering, as a defence against the wind or rain. Now no visitor was so welcome as the breeze, for the thermometer sometimes stood at 85° in the saloon at breakfast-time, and rose as the day advanced. Only the lightest clothing could be endured, and the oppressive heat rendered every exertion a fatigue. Few of the passengers, of whom there was a very pleasant company of between seventy and eighty in the cabin, ever remained long on deck during the day; and the sleeping places below were many of them during the night almost insufferably hot. But the gorgeous sunsets and the long long evenings were seasons of delightful existence. The greater portion of the passengers spent most of the evening on deck, attracted by the cool and balmy air, the tranquil sea, the serene and cloudless sky, revealing new con stellations, and other stars than had ever shone in our northern hemisphere. Conspicuous amongst these was always seen the Southern Cross, so often leading the thoughts by an irresistible tendency away to the contemplation of that brighter lustre by which the Cross of Calvary shall ultimately draw within its hallowed influence all kindreds of men. On the 6th of May we reached Ascension, a sterile and solitary island, rising to a considerable elevation in the centre, and broken into a number of peaks, on the highest portions of
