The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-01-06
A LIFE ON THE OCEAN BLUE, IS WELL DESCRIBED BY FAIRBANKS
 BOY: NEWSY LETTER OF VOYAGE

on one of the last mails and is full of many interesting facts. Since join ing the colors young Herring has from time to time regaled his friends in Fairbanks with accounts of his trip and the last is probably one of the most interesting to be received. It will probably be hls fast as he expects to be discharged from service soon and on his return to his home town he will be able to give first hand all that he has seen and done since becoming one of Uncle Sam's men:
 Somewhere-at-Sea. s. s. Montrolite.
 November 8, 1918. Dearest Sister:
 Tonight we are speeding along near the boundary line between Ecuador and Peru, and all day we were tray. cling ill sight of the coast of Ecuador. Tonight at five o'clock we passed a big lighthouse and wireless station on the point of South America that juts way out in Ecuador. We had a fine trip up to Mexico and back.
 Our return trip to Colon was not so nice. For a few days we had very hot weather and almost suffocated, then came storms and rain squalls It would rain every half hour or so and we had quite heavy sea. We passed several nice looking islands pineapple plantations, but that Is all the land we saw. The day we arrived at Colon we had a fierce electrical storm. Lightning hit the boat twice once on the stack and once on the mast. l was standing in the door both times and it sure jared me up We had to disconlect the wireless set as 1t was shooting sparks all over. It rained torrents. I never saw such rain; just like someone was pouring down bucketfuls Cn us. got soaked plum thru just walking across the gangway to breakfast The rain was so thick that the shiI got lost and nearly went on a reef When the rain stopped for a moment we were nearly on the shore of g bay and had a hard time getting out There was a little sailboat out at seq and a heavy wind squall came along and hit it, and it looked like the whole thing went2 over, but we couldn't do anything. Finally we saw the long point where the Color breakwater is, and little later ; sub chaser came out to find out who we were, followed later by pilot We went in by the breakwater ant thru the mine field, and finally an chored near an Argentine man-Of-war As we came in we saw something like g flag pole sticking out of the water and it kept raising until we saw ii was the periscope of a submarine Finally the sub emerged and sailed around bit, then submerged again Two nay planes flew over us ant came shooting along low, looking likt they would tear our upper structure of.
 We stayed at Colon over night an( we three wireless boys went ashore with the captain. We were the onl! ones allowed ashore, they being yer! strict in the canal zone. We coult not go into Colon city as they do no allow soldiers or sailors there. bu we went to Christobal, just outside of Colon. First we went to the navy headquarters and got paid off. I drew two months pay, seventy dollars, thi! being our first payday for some time At headquarters we met two meI from camp who had just arrived on { boat from Seattle, and we held ; regular reunion. They told us al the news and it sure was fine tt hear what the bunch were doing
 From headquarters we wandered around for a while, then went up tt the Y. M. c. A. The town is very pretty, and as most of the American! live there, there are some fine houses The buildings are most two-story with porches all around the outside The streets are wide and the grass growing all along the sides. The sides are lined with big. high cocoa nut trees heavy with nuts, and yol never know when cocoanut is going to come sailing down and whiz by your ear. Every yard has few banana trees growing with big bunch es of bananas on them. I could hard ly resist going over and picking g bunch. The chief sight of the place tho, is the hacks. These are olG dilapidated.looking rigs drawn by the oldest and littlest and scrawniest horses I ever saw. They make about mile a year, but everyone rides ir a cab. The place Is alive with ne groes, thousands of them; I never saw the like. They go around selling stuff. One came along with biz basket and said Peanuts; hot pea nuts today; don't you want some peanuts, white folks?" thot l would dio 1o,,0f,iuO Ono waa 1oo rnino tO