seems
permanently to encircle the globe. It is known as the cloud-ring. The
function of the cloud-ring is to temper the heat of the tropics, as that
of the Gulf-stream is to mitigate the coldness of the Pole. Under the
cloud-ring fogs are fatal. These are what are called _horse latitudes_.
It was here that navigators of bygone ages were accustomed to cast their
horses into the sea to lighten the ship in stormy weather, and to
economise the fresh water when becalmed. Columbus said, "_Nube abaxo ex
muerte_," death lurks in the low cloud. The Etruscans, who bear the same
relation to meteorology which the Chaldeans did to astronomy, had two
high priests--the high priest of the thunder, and the high priest of the
clouds. The "fulgurators" observed the lightning, and the weather sages
watched the mists. The college of Priest-Augurs was consulted by the
Syrians, the Phoenicians, the Pelasgi, and all the primitive navigators
of the ancient _Mare Internum_. The origin of tempests was, from that
time forward, partially understood. It is intimately connected with the
generation of fogs, and is, properly speaking, the same phenomenon.
There exist upon the ocean three regions of fogs, one equatorial and two
polar. The mariners give them but one name, the _pitch-pot_.

In all latitudes, and particularly in the Channel, the equinoctial fogs
are dangerous. They shed a sudden darkness over the sea. One of the
perils of fogs, even when not very dense, arises from their preventing
the mariners perceiving the change of the bed of the sea by the
variations of the colour of the water. The result is a dangerous
concealment of the approach of sands and breakers. The vessel steers
towards the shoals without receiving any warning. Frequently the fogs
leave a ship no resource except to lie-to, or to cast anchor. There are
as many shipwrecks from the fogs as from the winds.

After a very violent squall succeeding one of these foggy days, the
mail-boat _Cashmere_ arrived safely from England. It entered at St.
Peter's Port as the first gleam of day appeared upon the sea, and at the
very moment when the cannon of Castle Cornet announced the break of day.
The sky had cleared: the sloop _Cashmere_ was anxiously expected, as she
was to bring the new rector of St. Sampson.

A little after the arrival of the sloop, a rumour ran through the town
that she had been hailed during the night at sea by a long-boat
containing a shipwrecked crew.

VII