Sailing thence over the Great Bahama
Banks, in a crystal sea, we observed on the white marl bottom many
curious living things, among them the conch in its house of exquisite
tints and polished surface, the star-fish with radiated dome of curious
construction, and many more denizens of the place, the names of which I
could not tell, resting on the soft white bed under the sea.
"They who go down to the sea in ships, they see the wonders of the
Lord," I am reminded by a friend who writes me, on receipt of some of
these curious things which I secured on the voyage, adding: "For all
these curious and beautiful things are His handiwork. Who can look at
such things without the heart being lifted up in adoration?"
For words like these what sailor is there who would not search the caves
of the ocean? Words too, from a lady.
Two days of brisk sailing over the white Bahama Banks brought us to
Bimini. Thence a mere push would send us to the coast of our own native
America. The wind in the meantime hauling from regular nor'east trade to
the sou'west, as we came up to Bimini, promising a smooth passage
across, we launched out at once on the great Gulf Stream, and were swept
along by its restless motion, making on the first day, before the wind
and current, two hundred and twenty miles.
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