ed to a silken
thread, and by this means they were able to determine the amount of the
western variation of the needle. It is possible that both the Chinese
and Arabs discovered the magnetic powers of the loadstone, although the
latter in their long voyages may have allowed the knowledge they
possessed to have been drawn from them by the astute Chinese; or, _vice
versa_, the Arabs may have obtained the knowledge which the Chinese
already possessed, and kept it secret from the western nations. We all
remember the wonderful adventures of Sinbad the Sailor, as narrated in
the Arabian Nights--how the ship in which he sailed was attracted by a
magnetic mountain, which finally drew all the iron bolts and nails out
of her. Now it happens that the author places Sinbad's mountain in the
same part of the world in which the Chinese say their magnetic mountain
exists. Ptolemy, in his geography, also describes a magnetic mountain
existing in the Chinese Seas. We may therefore, I think, come to the
conclusion, that the mariner's compass was known to the ancients long
before the Christian era, and that although disused for centuries, the
knowledge was never altogether lost.

CHAPTER TWO.

EARLY ENGLISH SHIPS (FROM A.D. 600 TO A.D. 1087.)

We Englishmen undoubtedly derive a large portion of our nautical spirit
from our Saxon ancestors, the first bands of whom came to the shores of
our tight little island under those sea-rovers known as Hengist and
Horsa, invited by the helpless Britons to defend them from the attacks
of the savage Picts and Scots. The enemies of the gallant heroes I have
named were apt to call them pirates; but as might made right in most
sublunary affairs during those dark and troubled ages of the world's
history, they looked upon the roving commissions they had given
themselves as perfectly honourable and lawful, and felt no small amount
of contempt for the rest of mankind who chose to stay at home at ease by
their firesides, while they were ploughing the ocean in search of
plunder and glory. I suspect that they had a strong preference for the
former.

After the Saxons had driven the ancient inhabitants of the island out of
the more fertile portions of the country, and had made themselves,
according to their notions, pretty comfortable in their new homes; they,
in a little time, in their turn, were sadly pestered by foreign
invaders. These were the Danes. Those hardy sons of the North, still
more wi