shine in a similar
manner with light reflected from the sun. It is interesting to adjust
the telescope, and bring the starry system nearer to the vision. If we
direct our gaze upon a planet, we find its disk or face sharply defined;
change the direction, and let the object-glass rest upon a star, and we
have only a point of light more or less brilliant. The glass reveals to
us the fact that the "star-dust" which we call the Milky Way is an
accumulation of innumerable single stars. Sweeping the blue expanse with
the telescope, we find some stars are golden, some green, others purple,
many silvery white, and some are twins. Our use of the words "first and
second magnitude" relates mainly to distance. It is most likely only a
question of distance which regulates our vision or capacity for seeing,
and which makes these "lamps of the sky" look larger or smaller to us.

When the lonely lighthouse which marks Cape Maysi, at the eastern point
of Cuba, comes into view on the starboard bow, the dim form of the
mountains of Hayti are visible on the opposite horizon. A subterranean
connection is believed to exist between the mountain ranges of the two
islands. We are now running through the Windward Passage, as it is
called; by which one branch of the Gulf Stream finds its way northward.
The Gulf Stream! Who can explain satisfactorily its ceaseless current?
What keeps its tepid waters, in a course of thousands of miles, from
mingling with the rest of the sea? And finally whence does it come?
Maury, the great nautical authority, says the Gulf of Mexico is its
fountain, and its mouth is the Arctic Sea. The maps make the eastern
shore of Cuba terminate as sharp as a needle's point, but it proves to
be very blunt in reality, where it forms one side of the gateway to the
Caribbean Sea, and where the irregular coast line runs due north and
south for the distance of many leagues.

The nights are mostly clear, soft, and lovely in this region. As we
double Cape Maysi, and the ship is headed westward, the Southern Cross
and the North Star blaze in the opposite horizons at the same time, the
constellation on our port side (left-hand), and the North Star on the
starboard side. Each day at noon the captain and his officers determine
the exact position of the ship by "taking the sun," as it is termed.
When the sun reaches the meridian, that is, the point directly overhead,
the exact moment is indicated by the nautical instrument known as a
quad