any long superficial voyage as
to suffer like landsmen from rough weather. The difference between
sailing on and below the surface is so great, both in comfort and in
the kind of skill and knowledge required, that the seamen of passenger
and of mercantile vessels are classes much more distinct than those of
the mercantile and national marine of England, or any other maritime
Power on Earth. I consented readily that, except on the rare occasions
when the heavens were visible, the short night, from the fall of the
evening to the dissipation of the morning mists, should he passed
under water. I have said that gales are comparatively rare and the
tides insignificant; but the narrow and exceedingly long channels of
the Martial seas, with the influence of a Solar movement from north to
south more extensive though slower than that which takes place between
our Winter and Summer Solstices, produce currents, atmospheric and
oceanic, and sudden squalls that often give rise to that worst of all
disturbances of the surface, known as a "chopping sea." When we
crossed the tropic and came fairly into the channel separating the
western coast of the continent on which the Astronaut had landed from
the eastern seabord of that upon whose southern coast I was presently
to disembark, this disturbance was even worse than, except on
peculiarly disagreeable occasions, in the Straits of Dover. After
enduring this for two or three hours, I observed that Eveena had
stolen from her seat beside me on the deck. Since we left Askinta her
spirits had been unusually variable. She had been sometimes lively and
almost excitable; more generally quiet, depressed, and silent even
beyond her wont. Still, her manner and bearing were always so equable,
gentle, and docile that, accustomed to the caprices of the sex on
Earth, I had hardly noticed the change. I thought, however, that she
was to-day nervous and somewhat pale; and as she did not return, after
permitting the pilot to seek a calmer stratum at some five fathoms
depth, I followed Eveena into our cabin or chamber. Standing with her
back to the entrance and with a goblet to her lips, she did not hear
me till I had approached within arm's length. She then started
violently, so agitated that the colour faded at once from her
countenance, leaving it white as in a swoon, then as suddenly
returning, flushed her neck and face, from the emerald shoulder clasps
to the silver snood, with a pink deeper than that o