Towards noon we could see the shape of Indian mountains in the mist clouded distance.

An entertaining sport is the hunting of rays which kept me on the bridge at that hour. Seven of these flat, nearly 2 m long creatures swam portside by us at such a little depth that I could distinguish the dark brown backs from the greenish white fluorescing underside and hoped to hunt down one of them. At first I tried it with a shotgun – to no effect whatsoever then with a rifle shot which very finely painted a large ray. Unfortunately, the all too fast speed of the ship did not permit me to observe whether the bullet had killed it.

In the afternoon, the wind renewed itself, this time coming from the north. The sea became more violent and towards evening rather uncomfortable. The ship rolled greatly and the whole deck was repeatedly flooded by the sea.

Links

• Location: near India
• ANNO – on 04.01.1893 in Austria’s newspapers. The Neue Freie Presse notes that Vienna is fighting against heavy snowfall that is interrupting traffic. Coachmen, workers and the homeless are suffering greatly from the exposure to the snow and the low temperatures.
• The Pope sent the Austrian Emperor telegraphic New Year’s greetings. In Paris, meanwhile, the government prohibited all revolutionary public meetings in the city and the provinces.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater performed Emile de Girardin’s 1885 comedy „Lady Tartuffe“ while the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater offered Luigi Manzotti’s ballet „Excelsior“.