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deck, however, I found poor Jennier in despair, because opening up Number 5, on which his deck cargo is stored, left him no place to clean and water the cages, and he was walking across the steel beams, doing a regular tight rope act, in order to reach Harry, the cassowary, the kangaroos, and several others in that row. 

The day is warm and bright, and we are all warned to wear helmets on deck. One of the junior engineers is in bed with sunstroke which he got on board ship. There is a nice little breeze, but the Gulf of Aden, which we are now in, is calm and sparklingly blue. 

About nine o'clock at night we passed Aden - a row of lights between two light-houses, with the outline of mountains against the starry sky. As we were watching the distant town, a gorgeous meteor cut across the sky, leaving a path of fire that lasted for seconds. Someone on shore seemed to be trying to send us a signal, but nobody aboard got it. Just one of those things to pique one's curiosity - flashes in some code which nobody could read. Well, if it were anything really important I dare say we would have been wirelessed. 

August 30 -

The big orang is ill, as is also Roemah Sakit. One of the Medan gibbons is dead. The baby I have taken up to our room is still living on air. The very thought of food makes him scornful, and forcing milk down him is a doubtful remedy. 

We are really in the Red Sea now, and it is even hotter than I had been led to believe. Down in Number 6, peeling bananas and chopping apples, the temperature is simply vile. Sweat poured into my eyes, dripped of my elbows, and ran down my knees. 

The sea is beautiful, blue and calm, with porpoises to be seen occasionally, and many schools of fish breaking the water and disclosing their presence to the flocks of gulls who swoop down on them. 

We passed Mocha this morning - the nearest, says Bill, that we have been to a good cup of coffee for months.

It definitely is dysentery, and probably amoebic, that has seized the ship. Seven of the officers have it now. And we are forty-eight hours from a doctor.