IN THE DOLDRUMS 143 



In the neighbourhood of the Equator, between the 

 north-east and the south-east trades, lies what is called 

 the " belt of calms." The position and extent of this belt 

 vary somewhat with the season. If you are extremely 

 lucky, it may happen that one trade- wind will practically 

 take you over into the other; but, as a rule, this region 

 will cause quite a serious delay to sailing-ships; either 

 there are frequent calms, or shifting and unsteady winds. 

 We arrived there at an unfavourable time of the year 

 and lost the north-east trade as early as ten degrees north 

 of the line. If we had had the calms we looked for, we 

 could have got across with the help of the engine in a 

 reasonably short time, but we saw very little sign of 

 calms. As a rule, there was an obstinate south wind 

 blowing, and it would not have taken very much of it 

 to make the last few degrees of north latitude stiffer 

 than we cared for. 



The delay was annoying enough, but we had another 

 disappointment of a more serious kind, for, curiously 

 enough, we never had a proper shower of rain. Gener- 

 ally in these latitudes one encounters extremely heavy 

 downpours, which make it possible to collect water by 

 the barrelful in a very short space of time. We had 

 hoped in this way to increase our store of fresh water, 

 which was not so large but that extreme economy had 

 to be practised if we were to avoid running short. How- 

 ever, this hope failed us, practically speaking. We 

 managed to catch a little water, but it was altogether 



