age, and I found a paragraph which interested me.
I will go to my state-room for the book, if you will permit me to read
about ten lines from it to you."

The captain did not object, and Scott soon returned to the commander's
cabin with the book. The autocrat of the ship was plainly dissatisfied with
himself at the failure of his prediction for fine weather, and perhaps he
feared that the ambitious young officer intended to instruct him in regard
to the situation, though Scott had conducted himself in the most modest and
inoffensive manner.

"I don't wish to be intrusive, Captain Ringgold, but I thought it was
possible that you had forgotten this paragraph," said the young officer,
with abundant deference in his tone and manner.

"Probably I never saw it; but read it, Mr. Scott," replied the commander.

"The weather is generally fine, and the sky clear, with neither squall nor
rain, except between Ras Seger and the island of Masira,'" Scott began to
read, when the commander interrupted him, and fixed his gaze on the chart,
to find the localities mentioned.

"Ras Sajer," said the captain, placing the point of his pencil on the cape
whose name he read. "That must be the one you mention."

"No doubt of it, sir; and I have noticed that the spelling on the chart and
in the books doesn't agree at all. The island is Massera on my chart."

"They mean the same locality. Go on, Mr. Scott," added the captain.

"'And the vicinity of the bay of Kuriyan Muriyan, where the winds and
weather are more boisterous and variable than on any other part of the
coast,'" continued Scott.

"Where is that bay?" asked the commander.

"It is between the two points mentioned before; but it is Kuria Muria on
the chart;" and the captain had the point of his pencil on it by this time.

"We are within three hours' sail of the longitude of that bay, but a
hundred and fifty miles south of it," said the commander. "The information
in the book is quite correct. Is there anything more about it?"

"Yes, sir; a few lines more, and I will read them: 'Respecting Kuriyan
Muriyan Bay, Captain S.B. Haines, I.N., remarks that the sudden change of
winds, termed by the Arabs _Belat_, and which blow with great violence
for several days, are much dreaded; but what surprised me more than these
land winds were the frequent and heavy gales from the S.S.W. during
February and March, blowing for six days together.'"

"This gale, for such it appears to be, instea