Anyways, today was absolutely dreadful. We haven't landed anywhere since the Cocos Islands, and I'm all at the thought of salted trout - salted trout for break-fast, salted0trout for dinner, salted-trout for supper - it's absurd!
It was when I was helping with the rigging (and salted-trout had yet again invaded my thoughts) that I decided I needed an adventure. I finished tying some knots, and then my two feet led to Uncle Darwin's study. The door was ajar, and even though a girl like me should never, ever, look into someone's study, I was too weak with boredom to fight off the curiosity.
The inside was rather cold, and a few books were laid open upon desks and tables. I skimmed through a few, but I can't remember for the life of me the content of those works - they were all quite dry, and no diagrams were to be found anywhere. I did find a journal of Darwin's notes, and with a gleeful smile, I came upon a little page that looked like this:
Lamarck? - English Zoologist, Intelligent naturalist
- Lamarckism: theorizes that unused structures in animals become smaller, and unused structures can be passed on; likely, explains inheritance of genes, but would natural selection be a better explanation for this phenomenon?
- Unfortunate he passed, I am in need of a thoughtful colleague
- Lamarck's Philosophie Zoologique - remember to scour the libraries once we return.
- I smell salted-trout. Shall we ever be free from its bland assault on the tongue?
- After a good laugh, I couldn't rid the image of Mother shaking her head in disapproval and pulling out her little ruler. And so I left, smelling the smell of salted trout pervade the hull of the ship.
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| Wouldn't it be queer if fish learned how to fly and lost their fins? |
After a good laugh, I couldn't rid the image of my mother's disapproving frown, a little in her nimble fingers, and so I left, smelling the smell of salted trout pervade the wood in the hull.
(I can still smell it now! We need to make land or I shall go mad as a hatter!)