taties."

"Wot could _she_ tell about the doldrums?" said Muggins, with a look of
contempt.

"More nor ye think, boy; sure there isn't nothin' in the univarse but
she can spaik about, just like a book, an' though she niver was in the
doldrums as far as I knows, she's been in the dumps often enough; maybe
it's cousins they are. Anyhow she's not here, an' so we must be contint
with spekilation."

"What's that you say, Larry?" inquired the captain, who walked towards
the bow at the moment.

The cook explained his difficulty.

"Why, there's no mystery about the doldrums," said Captain Dall. "I've
read a book by an officer in the United States navy which explains it
all, and the Gulf Stream, and the currents, an' everything. Come, I'll
spin you a yarn about it."

Saying this, the captain filled and lighted his pipe, and seating
himself on the shank of the anchor, said--

"You know the cause of ocean currents, I dare say?"

"Niver a taste," said Larry. "It's meself is as innocent about 'em as
the babe unborn; an' as for Muggins there, _he_ don't know more about
'em than my ould shoes--"

"Or your old grandmother," growled Muggins.

"Don't be irriverent, ye spalpeen," said Larry.

"I ax her reverence's pardon, but I didn't know she wos a priest," said
Muggins.--"Go on, Cap'n Dall."

"Well," continued the captain, "you know, at all events, that there's
salt in the sea, and I may tell you that there is lime also, besides
other things. At the equator, the heat bein' great, water is evaporated
faster than anywhere else, so that there the sea is salter and has more
lime in it than elsewhere. Besides that it is hotter. Of course, that
being the case, its weight is different from the waters of the cold
polar seas, so it is bound to move away an' get itself freshened and
cooled. In like manner, the cold water round the poles feels obliged to
flow to the equator to get itself salted and warmed. This state of
things, as a natural consequence, causes commotion in the sea. The
commotion is moreover increased by the millions of shell-fish that dwell
there. These creatures, not satisfied with their natural skins, must
needs have shells on their backs, and they extract lime from the
sea-water for the purpose of makin' these shells. This process is
called secretin' the lime; coral insects do the same, and, as many of
the islands of the south seas are made by coral insects, you may guess
that a considerable lot of