for
the long stretch of a hundred degrees or so eastward. You will very
likely sight Tristan d'Acunha or Gough Island; but, if not, the course
will keep you fairly well informed of your longitude, since most ships
make more or less of a great circle track. Instead of steering due East
for the whole distance, they make for some southerly latitude by running
along the arc of a great circle, THEN run due east for a thousand miles
or so before gradually working north again. These alterations in the
courses tell the foremast hand nearly all he wants to know, slight as
they are. You will most probably sight Amsterdam Island or St. Paul's in
about 77deg. E.; but whether you do or not, the big change made in the
course, to say nothing of the difference in the weather and temperature,
say loudly that your long easterly run is over, and you are bound to
the northward again. Soon the south-east trades will take you gently
in hand, and waft you pleasurably upward to the line again, unless you
should be so unfortunate as to meet one of the devastating meteors known
as "cyclones" in its gyration across the Indian Ocean. After losing the
trade, which signals your approach to the line once more, your guides
fluctuate muchly with the time of year. But it may be broadly put
that the change of the monsoon in the Bay of Bengal is beastliness
unadulterated, and the south-west monsoon itself, though a fair wind for
getting to your destination, is worse, if possible. Still, having got
that far, you are able to judge pretty nearly when, in the ordinary
course of events, you will arrive at Saugor, and get a tug for the rest
of the journey.

But on this strange voyage I was quite as much in the dark concerning
our approximate position as any of the chaps who had never seen salt
water before they viewed it from the bad eminence of the CACHALOT's
deck. Of course, it was evident that we were bound eastward, but whether
to the Indian seas or to the South Pacific, none knew but the skipper,
and perhaps the mate. I say "perhaps" advisedly. In any well-regulated
merchant ship there is an invariable routine of observations performed
by both captain and chief officer, except in very big vessels, where the
second mate is appointed navigating officer. The two men work out their
reckoning independently of each other, and compare the result, so that
an excellent check upon the accuracy of the positions found is
thereby afforded. Here, however, there might n