ect with the compass; his method certainly was very good,
for by such reiterated catechising what you had to learn was graven on
your memory. All day long the same system was pursued. Even if dinner
was on the table, the compass was on a chair close by, and as I was
putting my fork to my mouth, much to Bessy's amusement, out would come
the question, "How's her head, Tom?" Bramble soon gained his point; I
could answer like lightning. But whether I was by the fire indoors, or
on the shingle beach, his system was ever the same. Every time that
Bramble opened his lips I gained some information; he was never
wearying, and often very amusing.

One morning we were out on the beach--we had been conversing with the
other pilots, and examining the vessels in the offing with my
glass--when he pointed out to me, it being low neap tide, that the
Goodwin Sands were partially dry. "Tom," continued he, "of all the
dangers, not only of the Channel, but in the wide ocean, there is none
to be compared with those sands--the lives that have been lost on them,
the vessels that have been wrecked, and the property that has been
sucked into them, would be a dozen kings' ransoms; for, you see, Tom,
they are quicksands, and the vessel which goes on shore does not remain
to be broken up, but in two tides she disappears, sinking down into the
sands, which never give her or her cargo up again. There must be a
mighty deal of wealth buried there, that is certain. They say that once
they were a flourishing fertile island, belonging to an Earl Godwin,
whose name they now bear; it may be so--the sea retreats from one place
while it advances at another. Look at Romney Marshes, where so many
thousands of sheep are now fed. They run up many miles inland; and yet
formerly those very marshes were an arm of the sea, which vessels rode
in deep water, and sea-fights, I am told, took place. Howsomever, when
the sea took the Godwin island to itself it made the best trap for
vessels that old Neptune now possesses, and he may consider it as the
most productive spot in his dominions. Lord help us! what a deal of gold
and merchandise must there be buried below yon yellow patch!"

"Do you never save anything when vessels are run on shore there?"

"When they only tail on, we occasionally get them off again; but when
once fixed, there's an end of it. Yes, we save life occasionally, but at
great risk of our own. I saved little Bessy from a vessel ashore on
these sands."