Captain Scruggs continues his quiet, almost agreeable manner, answers pleasantly, and has little to say at meals. It is aggravating to think that the skipper knew quite well how he ought to have behaved during the voyage, and that he simply didn’t care “whether school kept or not.” Now and then the silence is broken during dinner by a shattering crash of the old man’s ponderous foot upon the oil-cloth floor, while he simultaneously yells, “Get out o’ here, you homely thing!” This is an exhortation to the gaunt, pop-eyed cat, which sometimes slinks into the cabin at meals. It seems impossible to fatten this singular animal, and it skulks and stalks about the decks as lank and ribbed as a Calcutta jackal, with its huge saffron eyes fixed motionlessly upon you in so startling a fashion that it looks like an incarnation of one of Cruikshank’s drawings. Its notions of sport are equally strange; Tommie, the sleek Maltese, has been trying to teach it how to play, but when Tom rushes sportively at it, the other executes a series of prodigious, vertical leaps, with its legs flat out at right angles, and in another moment vanishes with an eldrich cry. Mr. Rarx is about the same; two of the men supported him to-day while he tried to hobble about the deck; but he cannot for an instant even stand alone. Latitude, 6° 56′ north; longitude, 121° 15′ west. +August 26+ We are now certain that we have lost the Trades. The wind has been steady at southwest for twenty-four hours, and, though not a strong breeze, we made more than two degrees of latitude, which is not bad going for this region, and three days of it would take us into the northeast winds. It is intensely hot and moist, and heavy showers pelt us every half-hour; but it is a fine chance for cleaning ship, and all hands are at work scrubbing off the old paint from the bulwarks and deck-houses preparatory to the new coat. How I wish we could get a photograph in colors of that villain, Tim Powers! I never supposed that one of the human species could so nearly in appearance approach the simian race. His head and jaws are covered with a thick growth of bright-red hair, which continues down his throat till it meets a shaggy breast. The body, powerfully made, is curved forward like an ape’s, and long, thick arms, hair-covered to the knuckles, swing loosely well below the middle; and he waddles in his gait like a monkey endeavoring to walk upright. The best possible description of this animal is to say that he is ever so much more like a chimpanzee than a chimpanzee is. Besides all this, he is so dirty that the rest of the men follow him with their eyes as he moves about the deck. Those who are not especially interested in the well-being of our sailors may find the following dissertation somewhat tiresome; but the facts about to be set forth ought to be known to the public, as they certainly are not, so that I will not begin these remarks with an apology for their length.