Extracts From Adams Diary | Page 4

relation. That is what she
thinks, but this is an error, in my judgment. The difference in size
warrants the conclusion that it is a different and new kind of animal--a
fish, perhaps, though when I put it in the water to see, it sank, and she

plunged in and snatched it out before there was opportunity for the
experiment to determine the matter. I still think it is a fish, but she is
indifferent about what it is, and will not let me have it to try. I do not
understand this. The coming of the creature seems to have changed her
whole nature and made her unreasonable about experiments. She thinks
more of it than she does of any of the other animals, but is not able to
explain why. Her mind is disordered--everything shows it. Sometimes
she carries the fish in her arms half the night when it complains and
wants to get to the water. At such times the water comes out of the
places in her face that she looks out of, and she pats the fish on the back
and makes soft sounds with her mouth to soothe it, and betrays sorrow
and solicitude in a hundred ways. I have never seen her do like this
with any other fish, and it troubles me greatly. She used to carry the
young tigers around so, and play with them, before we lost our property;
but it was only play; she never took on about them like this when their
dinner disagreed with them.
Sunday
She doesn't work Sundays, but lies around all tired out, and likes to
have the fish wallow over her; and she makes fool noises to amuse it,
and pretends to chew its paws, and that makes it laugh. I have not seen
a fish before that could laugh. This makes me doubt. ... I have come to
like Sunday myself. Superintending all the week tires a body so. There
ought to be more Sundays. In the old days they were tough, but now
they come handy.
Wednesday
It isn't a fish. I cannot quite make out what it is. It makes curious,
devilish noises when not satisfied, and says "goo-goo" when it is. It is
not one of us, for it doesn't walk; it is not a bird, for it doesn't fly; it is
not a frog, for it doesn't hop; it is not a snake, for it doesn't crawl; I feel
sure it is not a fish, though I cannot get a chance to find out whether it
can swim or not. It merely lies around, and mostly on its back, with its
feet up. I have not seen any other animal do that before. I said I
believed it was an enigma, but she only admired the word without
understanding it. In my judgment it is either an enigma or some kind of

a bug. If it dies, I will take it apart and see what its arrangements are. I
never had a thing perplex me so.
Three Months Later
The perplexity augments instead of diminishing. I sleep but little. It has
ceased from lying around, and goes about on its four legs now. Yet it
differs from the other four-legged animals in that its front legs are
unusually short, consequently this causes the main part of its person to
stick up uncomfortably high in the air, and this is not attractive. It is
built much as we are, but its method of travelling shows that it is not of
our breed. The short front legs and long hind ones indicate that it is of
the kangaroo family, but it is a marked variation of the species, since
the true kangaroo hops, whereas this one never does. Still, it is a
curious and interesting variety, and has not been catalogued before. As
I discovered it, I have felt justified in securing the credit of the
discovery by attaching my name to it, and hence have called it
Kangaroorum Adamiensis. ... It must have been a young one when it
came, for it has grown exceedingly since. It must be five times as big,
now, as it was then, and when discontented is able to make from
twenty-two to thirty-eight times the noise it made at first. Coercion
does not modify this, but has the contrary effect. For this reason I
discontinued the system. She reconciles it by persuasion, and by giving
it things which she had previously told it she wouldn't give it. As
already observed, I was not at home when it first came, and she told me
she found it in the woods. It seems odd that it should be the only one,
yet it must be so, for I have worn myself out these many weeks trying
to