o the forecastle, where I
had been longing to go ever since the early morning, when, it may be
remembered, Davis ordered me back to the poop on my attempting to pass
forwards as I first came out of the cabin.

If it was jolly watching the progress of the ship from aft, it was ever
so much more delightful from my new coign of vantage; for, as she dived
her head and parted the waves with her bows, the water dashed up on
either side in a column of spray like a fountain. The sunlight falling
on this refracted the most beautiful prismatic colours, a perfect
rainbow being formed to leeward which was ever being broken up and then
arching itself anew into a sort of emerald and orange halo in front of
the vessel's prow.

From where I stood on the knight heads, in the centre of the forecastle,
just under the shadow of the bellying sails, the sea appeared much
nearer to me, swelling up to the lee-rail as the _Josephine_ tore along
through it in ploughing her course onward; and yet, the outlook conveyed
a better idea of its vastness than when I was on the poop aft and more
elevated above the surface level, for the immense plain of water, in
constant surging motion--now flat as a meadow, now ridged with curling
waves as far as the eye could reach, and then again scooped out into a
wide hollow valley covered over with yeasty foam, looking as if a giant
custard had been poured over it--extended to where the curving horizon
met the sky-line in the distance, our ship, in comparison with the
limitless expanse, being only as it were a tiny cork, floating on the
ocean of blue and blown along as lightly before the wind!

The fore-staysail, which had only recently been hoisted when the
studding-sails were set, being now found to be in the way of getting in
the anchors, as it prevented the hands from working freely, Mr Marline
ordered the downhaul to be manned as soon as the halliards were cast-
off. The sail was then loosely stowed for a while, and a double-
purchase block and tackle rigged up in its place on the stay.

Mr Marline then sang out to Moggridge to cast-off the shank painter
securing the best bower to the starboard side of the ship, this being
the easiest anchor of the two to handle, for it was to windward, clear
of the sheets of the head-sails; whereupon, the lifting gear being
attached, the ponderous mass of metal was soon hoisted up above the cat-
head and swayed inboard by means of a guy-line fastened to one of the
fluk