g
Wang's galley than in poetical dreams of Atlantic isles and ocean
wonders!

On passing Madeira, we soon got out of the Horse Latitudes, a soft
breeze springing up from the west again towards evening, which wafted us
down to the Canaries within the next two days. Here we picked up the
north-east trades south of Palma, just when we could barely discern the
Peak of Teneriffe far-away off high up in the clouds, and then we went
on grandly on our voyage once more with every sail set, logging over two
hundred miles a day and going by the Cape de Verde Islands in fine
style. We did not bring up again until we reached "the Doldrums," in
about latitude 5 degrees north and 22 degrees west, where the fickle
wind deserted us again and left us rolling and sweltering in the great
region of equatorial calm. The north-east and south-east trades here
fight each other for the possession of their eventful battle-ground, the
Line, and old Neptune finds the contest so wearisome that he goes to
sleep while it lasts, the tumid swelling of his mighty bosom only
showing to all whom it may concern that he merely dozes and is not dead!

The temperature of the sea seemed to increase each day after we lost
sight of the Peak of Teneriffe until it was now lukewarm, if one drew a
bucket from over the side; although Captain Gillespie said it was "quite
cold" for that time of year!

Talking about this, Mr Mackay told me that sea-water is composed of an
awful lot of things such as I would not have supposed--oxygen and
hydrogen, with muriate of soda, magnesia, iron, lime, copper, silica,
potash, chlorine, iodine, bromide, ammonia and silver being amongst its
ingredients, and the muriate of soda forming the largest of the solid
substances detected in it. With such a mixture of things as this, it is
not surprising that it should taste so nasty when swallowed--is it?

With the enforced leisure produced by the calm, I had plenty of
opportunity for observing the various strange varieties of animal life
which came about the ship--the flying-fish with beautiful silvery wings
that sparkled in the sunlight coming inboard in shoals, pursued by their
enemies the albacores, who drove them out of the sea to take refuge in
the air; besides numbers of grampusses and sharks swimming round us.
Adams, the sailmaker, killed one of these latter gentry with a harpoon,
spearing him from the bowsprit as he came past the ship. He looked up
with his evil eye, fancying