In the meantime we made sea excursions with boats borrowed
from ships in the port. On July 23rd, with a borrowed boat, we went
out when the sea was high, but soon found our boat unmanageable, and
at last got into a place where the sea was breaking heavily over a
shoal, and the two of the crew who were nearest to me (A. Malkin and
Lewis), one on each side, were carried out: they were good swimmers
and we recovered them, though with some trouble: the breaker had
passed quite over my head: we gained the shore and the boat was taken
home by land. When our own boat was finished, we had some most
picturesque adventures at the Mumbles, Aberavon, Caswell Bay,
Ilfracombe, and Tenby. From all this I learnt navigation pretty
well. The mixture of hard study and open-air exertion seemed to affect
the health of several of us (I was one): we were covered with painful
boils.
"My Latin-writing began again on July 25th: I have notes on
Demosthenes, Lucretius, and Greek History. In mathematics I find
Chances, Figure of the Earth with variable density, Differential
Equations, Partial Differentials, sketch for an instrument for shewing
refraction, and Optical instruments with effects of chromatic
aberration.
Pages:
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97