ve out the
course east by north half-north, and the French flag was hauled down
from the topmast. The passengers of the Blanche had been sent on board
of her, while those of the Guardian-Mother continued to promenade the
deck. The commander noticed that some of them were gaping and yawning,
and he remembered that they had had only three or four hours' sleep.

"I advise you all to turn in and finish your night's sleep," said he.
"Professor Giroud will give his lecture on the Philippine Islands and
Manila to-morrow at half-past nine. There is nothing to do till
dinner-time. No lunch will be served to-day in the cabin, for you have
but just left the breakfast-table; but any one can ring his bell, and
send for whatever is wanted."

The passengers seemed to think favorably of this advice, for they all
went below. There was nothing to see; for there was not a single island
in the course, and the ship was soon out of sight of land, not to see it
again till she made Luban Island, off the entrance to Manila Bay. The
wind was almost dead ahead, though it blew very gently; but this
circumstance soon attracted the attention of Scott, who had been so busy
with the frolics that he had not had time to consult his books and
chart.

It was not his watch; and he went to his stateroom, returning very soon
with the blue book that goes with the chart of the Indian Ocean. He
found that there was an east monsoon which prevailed in the China Sea
north of the equator.

"What's the matter, Mr. Scott?" asked the captain when he found him
absorbed over his book. "Do you think we are going wrong, or that there
is a typhoon within hail?"

"Neither, sir; I was looking to see why the wind was east to-day,"
replied the third officer.

"You have discovered by this time that there is an east monsoon coming
in between those from the north-east and south-west."

"But we did not find it coming up from Sarawak to Bangkok," added the
young officer.

"Your course carried you within between one hundred and one hundred and
fifty miles of the Malay Peninsula. This and the great island of Sumatra
doubtless have some influence on the winds. Both of these bodies of land
are very hot; and, as the air from them tends to the cooler atmosphere
of the sea, they favor the south-west monsoons. All these bodies of land
modify to some extent the prevailing winds."

Scott was satisfied with the explanation, for it conformed with what he
found in his book. When he