Our trunks were brought up from the vessel's hold, and we took out summer clothing.

But how inadequate and inappropriate it was for that climate! Our faces burned and blistered; even the parting on the head burned, under the awnings which were kept spread.

The ice-supply decreased alarmingly, the meats turned green, and when the steward went down into the refrigerator, which was somewhere below the quarter-deck, to get provisions for the day, every woman held a bottle of salts to her nose, and the officers fled to the forward part of the ship.

The odor which ascended from that refrigerator was indescribable: it lingered and would not go.

It followed us to the table, and when we tasted the food we tasted the odor.