ing him. He was very obedient, and always did his best to learn
his lessons; so that it was quite a pleasure for me to instruct him.

Dick was greatly astonished when papa came on deck with the sextant in
his hand, and "shot" the sun, as it is called; that is to say, he
ascertained our exact latitude by observing through the instrument the
height of the sun at noon. Placing it to his eye, he watched it until
it ceased to rise, the indicator showing the number of degrees it was
above the horizon. The _Nautical Almanack_ gives the height it would be
at noon on that day along every parallel so that a few figures enabled
him to ascertain how far north we had sailed. The way to find the
longitude, he explained to us, was by means of the chronometer. An
observation is then taken of the sun, moon, or a star, which would
appear at a certain height above the horizon at that particular hour.

The wind fell before we reached the Isle of Man. In the evening we saw
several bright lights burst forth--some on the Isle of Man, others on
the mainland. On the right we saw a fixed light, which the chart showed
us was Saint Bees' Head; while another shone from the point of Ayr.
Leaving Saint Bees' Head astern, with the light on the point of Ayr on
our port beam, we came in sight of the intermittent light of the Mull of
Galloway. Most of these lights were visible at the same time; and as we
sailed up the channel we could see those on the Irish coast, as well as
those on the coast of Scotland.

When we came on deck the next morning, we were passing along the coast
of Ayrshire, within sight of Ailsa Crag, a fine rock, which stands out
of the sea to a great height. It is a mass of columnar trap of a grey
colour. We steered so as to pass it on our starboard side. We had come
in sight of the southern face, where we could distinguish a square
tower, perched on a terrace, about two hundred feet above the sea. The
ascent to the summit must be no easy matter. As we sailed on, we came
off the north-west side, which is almost perpendicular, and composed of
successive tiers of enormous columns. Here we made out a cave, above
which was a grassy declivity sloping upwards towards the summit. Though
it is at the very mouth of the Clyde, its great height causes it to be
seen at a distance, preventing it being dangerous to vessels bound to
Glasgow. Any person inclined to solitude might take up his abode there,
and live without leaving it, as