that hour we find
that the sun is so many minutes behind hand in attaining that altitude,
we know we must be a certain distance further to the west, as, the world
turning from west to east, the more westerly a place is the longer it
will be before the sun appears there. If, on the contrary, we find the
sun has gained a fixed altitude some time before it would have gained
that altitude at Greenwich, we know that we must be to the east of
Greenwich, or have met the sun sooner than the people at Greenwich have
done. Thus, the further we sail east day after day, the sooner we see
the sun; while the further we sail west, the longer the time which
passes before he shines upon us."

"I think I have an idea about it now, sir," I exclaimed; "and I should
be very much obliged if you will show me how to take an observation and
to make use of the books, as well as to work out the calculations. Why,
may I ask, do you cry Stop, sir, to the second officer or to Mr
Thudicumb, who are watching the chronometer while you are taking an
observation?"

"That they may mark the exact moment shown on the chronometer, while I
mark the sun's elevation as shown on the index of the sextant."

"But then you take observations at night sometimes, sir, looking at the
moon or the stars?"

"We do that to discover the distance which one star appears from another
at a certain hour, or their elevation above the horizon. The object is
the same as that for which we take an observation of the sun, though the
calculation is rather more intricate."

After this I set to work, and whenever the captain and his mates took an
observation, I took one also, although I was, I must own, at first very
far from correct. Sometimes my observation was imperfect; at other
times I made mistakes in the calculation.

At length the ship, which had been favoured with a breeze more or less
strong ever since she left England, was becalmed. Sometimes she got a
little wind which lasted for an hour or two, and then died away; then
light airs came, first from one quarter, then from another, and the crew
were constantly employed in bracing up, or squaring away the yards.

"It is always like this in these Horse Latitudes," said the boatswain as
he walked the forecastle, where I had gone to have a talk with him.

"Why do you call them `Horse Latitudes?'" I asked, as I listened to his
remarks.

"Why, I have heard say that they were so called by the Yankees, or the
people o