can you see through a
fog?"

"According how thick it is."

"I see you've a glass there: tell me what you make of that vessel just
opening from Blackwall Reach."

"What, that ship?"

"Oh, you can make it out to be a ship, can you, with the naked eye?
Well, then, you have good eyes."

I fixed my glass upon the vessel, and, after a time, not having
forgotten the lessons so repeatedly given me by Spicer, I said, "She has
no colors up, but she's an Embden vessel by her build."

"Oh," said he, "hand me the glass. The boy's right; and a good glass,
too. Come, I see you do know something--and good knowledge, too, for a
pilot. It often saves us a deal of trouble when we know a vessel by her
build; them foreigners sail too close to take pilots. Can you stand
cold? Have you got a P-jacket?"

"Yes, father bought me one."

"Well, you'll want it this winter, for the wild geese tell us that it
will be a sharp one. Steady, starboard!"

"Starboard it is."

"D'ye know the compass?"

"No."

"Well, stop till we get down to Deal. Now, stand by me, and keep your
eyes wide open; for, d'ye see, you've plenty to larn, and you can't
begin too soon. We must square the mainyard, captain, if you please,"
continued he, as we entered Blackwall Reach. "What could make the river
so perverse as to take these two bends in Limehouse and Blackwall
Reaches, unless to give pilots trouble, I can't say."

The wind being now contrary from the sharp turn in the river, we were
again tiding it down; that is, hove-to and allowing the tide to drift us
through the Reach; but as soon as we were clear of Blackwall Reach, we
could lay our course down the river. As we passed Gravesend, Bramble
asked me whether I was ever so low down.

"Yes," replied I, "I have been down as far as Sea Reach;" which I had
been when I was upset in the wherry, and I told him the story.

"Well, Tom, that's called the river now; but do you know that, many
years ago, where we now are used to be considered as the mouth of the
river, and that fort there" (pointing to Tilbury Fort) "was built to
defend it? for they say the French fleet used to come and anchor down
below."

[Illustration: JACK AND BRAMBLE ABOARD THE INDIAMAN.--Marryat, Vol. X.,
p. 207.]

"Yes," replied I; "and they say, in the History of England, that the
Danes used to come up much higher, even up to Greenwich; but that's a
very long while ago."

"Well, you beat me, Tom! I never heard that; and I think, i