MARK TWAIN
The speed of the stream varies from 1/3 to 3^ knots
an hour. We have been making 200, 210, 220 miles a day
but now in this current we can turn off 250 to 275.
Soaked banana and plantain in brandy, and got the
monkey tight.
Jan, 10, 1867. 26 days out from San Francisco today—
at noon we shall be off Cape Hatteras and less than 400
miles south of N. Y.—a day and a half's run.
We shall be leaving this warming-pan of a Gulf Stream
today, and then it will cease to be genial summer weather
and become wintry cold. We already see the signs. They
have put feather mattresses and blankets on our berths
this morning.
It is raining—warm.
Jan. 10. Rainy. At n A.M. 18 miles from Cape Hat-
teras. Distance to N. Y, 320 miles.
8 sick, 5 diarrhea, 3 convalescent—2 better.
Jan. 10. Passing out of the Gulf Stream rapidly. At
2 P.M. the temperature of the water had fallen 7 degrees
in half an hour. Already the day is turning cold and over-
coats coming into vogue.
Jan. 10, 11:30 P.M. Dark and stormy, and the ship
plunging considerably. It is villainously cold. Have just
come forward from the purser's room and felt some-
thing blow in my face like snow. Think it was, but too
dark to tell.
Jan. ii_? 7 P.M. Been in bed all day to keep warm—
fearfully cold.
We are off Barnegat—passed a pilot boat a while ago*
We shall get to N. Y. before morning.
The d'd crowd in the smoking-room are as wildly sing-
ing now as they were capering childishly about the deck