d that I did not note
down some memoranda in my pocket-book."

"That now, is positively diabolical!" exclaimed Max, from his covert
among the creepers, where he was completely invisible, except his heels,
which were kicking in the air; "I wouldn't have believed, Arthur, that
you were such a methodical, cold-blooded creature! I suppose now, that
if I had tumbled overboard during that hideous time, and been gulped
down by a shark, or if Shakespeare had starved to death, you would have
made a regular memorandum of the event, in business-like style, and
wound up your watch as usual. I think I see the entry in your
pocket-book, thus: `1839, June 3rd--Mem. Max Adeler fell overboard this
day, and was devoured by a shark--an amiable and interesting youth,
though too much given to levity, and not prepared, I fear, for so
unexpected a summons. June 5th--Mem. My worthy and estimable friend,
John Browne, late of Glasgow, Scotland, died this day, from lack of
necessary food. Threw him overboard. What startling monitions of the
uncertainty of life!'"

"Peace, Kaiser Maximilien, peace!" cried Browne, "and let the Professor
proceed to fix our longitude."

"The first thing," resumed Arthur, "is to plant a straight stick upright
in the ground; when it casts no shadow east or west it is twelve o'clock
_here_. My watch will then show what time it is at the Kingsmills: if
it shows an earlier hour there, we must be east of them; if a later
hour, then we are west of them."

"I think I understand that," said Johnny; "the next thing is to tell how
far east or west we are."

"That is quite easy. There are, you know, three hundred and sixty
degrees of longitude: the sun passes through them all--that is, round
the globe in twenty-four hours. Then, of course, in one hour, it passes
through fifteen degrees, and through one degree in four minutes; so that
for every four minutes' difference of time, there will be a difference
of longitude of one degree--that is, near the equator, about seventy
miles."

"It must be very near noon now," said Johnny, running out into a patch
of sunshine, where a small opening in the grove let in the light, "see!
I have hardly any shadow at all."

Arthur planted a stick in the ground, and as soon as the shadow marked
the hour of noon, looked at his watch, by which it was eighteen minutes
after twelve.

"It would seem from this," said he, "that we are four degrees and a
half, or over three hundred mile