Volume I Part 12 (1/2)

CHAPTER xxxIV How They Steered On Their Way

When we quitted the Chaantine, we ues to the ard of the spot, where we had abandoned the Arcturion Though how far we ht then have been, North or South of the Equator, I could not with any certainty divine

But that ere not removed any considerable distance fron of the extreh often we scanned the northern and southern horizon in search of theards the aspect of the skies near the ocean's rirees in one's latitude at sea, is readily perceived by a person long accusto the heavens

If correct in itude at the tiress we had been ues to sail, ere the country we sought would be found But for obvious reasons, how long precisely we ht of land, it was iht breezes, and currentsuncertain Nor had we any ress, except by what is called Dead Reckoning,--the co made for the supposed deviations from our course, by reason of the ocean streams; which at tireat velocity

Now, in many respects we could not but feel safer aboard the Parki than in the Chareater the number of lives involved He who is ready to despair in solitary peril, plucks up a heart in the presence of another In a plurality of comrades is antine there were many sources of uneasiness and anxiety unknown to me in the whale-boat True, we had noeen us and the deep, five hundred good planks to one lath in our buoyant little chip But the Parki required ilant look-out was indispensable With iht have run close to shoal or reef; whereas, siht prove fatal to all concerned

Though in the joyous sunlight, sailing through the sparkling sea, I was little troubled with serious s; in the hours of darkness it was quite another thing And the apprehensions, nay terrors I felt, weretheir night-watches Several times I was seized with a deadly panic, and earnestly scanned thefrom slu were life and death, sleeping upright against the tiller, as on rudely carved on our prow

Were it not, that on board of other vessels, I les, I would have been almost at a loss to account for this heedlessness in my comrades But it seemed as if the mere sense of our situation, should have been sufficient to prevent the like conduct in all on board our craft

Sa His large opal eyes were half open; and turned toward the light of the binnacle, gleamed between the lids like bars of flae lineaed, or threatened: the occasional drowsiness of ers proved incurable To no purpose, I reht-watch in a craft like ours, was far different from similar heedlessness on board the Arcturion For there, our place upon the ocean was always known, and our distance froht the seamen were permitted to be drowsy, it was mostly, because the captain well knew that strict watchfulness could be dispensed with

Though in all else, the Skye he was either perversely obtuse, or infatuated Or, perhaps, finding himself once more in a double-decked craft, which rocked him as of yore, he was lulled into a deceitful security

For Samoa, his drowsiness was the drowsiness of one beat on sleep, come dreams or death He seemed insensible to the peril we ran Often I sent the sleepy savage below, sad, steeredh I h with their allotted four hours each

It has been mentioned, that Annatoo took her turn at the helm; but it was only by day And in justice to the lady, I must affirm, that upon the whole she acquitted herself well For notwithstanding the syren face in the binnacle, which dilances, Annatoo after all was tolerably heedful of her steering Indeed she took much pride therein; always ready for her turn; withhour, as it caular rotation

Her tiuardian star; for frequently she gazed up at a particular section of the heavens, like one regarding the dial in a tower

By so or other, she had cajoled herself into the notion, that whoever steered the brigantine, for that period was captain Wherefore, she gave herselfunintelligible orders about tri to see how fast ere going All this , who several tih; a loud and healthy one to boot: a pheno

And thus much for Annatoo, preli the drowsiness of Jarl and Sabroad awake, I decided to let Annatoo take her turn at the night watches; which several ti at the sleepiness of her spouse; though abstaining frorown exceedingly friendly

Now the Cal, was altogether too wakeful Theof the craft employed not sufficiently her active mind Ever and anon she must needs rush from the tiller to take a parenthetical pull at the fore- brace, the end of which led down to the bulwarks near by; then refreshi+ng herself with a draught or two of water and a biscuit, she would continue to steer away, full of the i' of the sails, a violent sta her thus indefatigable, I readily induced her to stand tatches to Jarl's and Samoa's one; and when she was at the helm, I permittedon the quarter-deck

It was the Skyeman, who often adht, thus stopping her headway till ht have perhaps warranted the sluhly ih the water, the rapid currents we encountered would continually be drifting us eastward; since, contrary to our previous experience, they seemed latterly to have reversed their flow, a phenomenon by no means unusual in the vicinity of the Line in the Pacific And this it was that so prolonged our passage to the ard Even in a moderate breeze, I sometimes fancied, that the ilide of the currents; so that with , ere in reality almost a fixture on the sea

The equatorial currents of the South Seasthe most mysterious of the o, who knows? Tell us, what hidden law regulates their flow

Regardless of the theory which ascribes to them a nearly uniform course from east to west, induced by the eastwardly winds of the Line, and the collateral action of the Polar strea Nor can the period of their revolutions be at all relied upon or predicted

But however difficult it n a specific cause for the ocean streams, in any part of the world, one of the wholesoh And though the circumstance here alluded to is perhaps known to every body, it enerally invested with the importance it deserves Reference is hereand purification of the sea-water by reason of the currents

For, that the ocean, according to the popular theory, possesses a special purifying agent in its salts, is somewhat to be doubted Nor can it be explicitly denied, that those very salts ht corrupt it, were it not for the brisk circulation of its particles consequent upon the flow of the streams It is well known to sea in a tropical clihly offensive; which is not the case with rainwater