120 Transactions . — JMiscellaneous. 



time was something as follows : To each man — one good 

 cheese for the whole voyage ; three pounds of biscuit, a 

 quartern of vinegar, and half a pound of butter per week ; on 

 Sunday, three-quarters of a pound of meat ; on Monday and 

 Wednesday, 6oz. of salted cod ; on Tuesday and Saturday, 

 a quarter of a pound of stock-fish ; on Thursday and Friday, 

 three-quarters of a pound of bacon with grey peas ; and 

 at all times as much oatmeal as could be eaten. Those were 

 not the days of coffee, tea, or teetotalism, but of strong 

 rum and arrack, which were regularly distributed; and who- 

 ever was so lucky as first to descry land from the mast- 

 head had his ration doubled. The instruments and methods 

 used for determining the position at sea— the latitude and 

 longitude — were of the most primitive and, one might say, 

 ineffective kind. Cartography was in its infancy, and the few 

 charts that were placed in the sailor's hands were projected 

 on principles so regardless of the proportions of the sphere as 

 to be absolutely misleading and dangerous. The simple de- 

 vice of the log for measuring the rate of sailing through the 

 water was introduced but twenty years prior to Tasman's 

 time. Before that it was usual to estimate the amount by 

 guess. The sun's altitude, and the relative position of the 

 heavenly bodies, which are now calculated with such accu- 

 racy by means of the sextant, and which, with the chrono- 

 meter, give the true position, were then ascertained by very 

 crude instruments — -the astrolabe, and, later, the cross-staff ; 

 specimens of which I exhibit. The astrolabe w'as made of a 

 circular piece of metal. Tin. in diameter, divided into quad- 

 rants, one of which was divided into degrees, and suspended 

 freely, as one nnght suspend a watch by its ring. A broad 

 pointer or index, l^in. wide, traversed the face of the instru- 

 ment, and was divided through the exact middle of its length 

 by a line termed "the line of confidence." Close to each 

 extremity of the index, and perpendicular to it, a small j)late 

 w^as fixed, with two small holes, one larger than the other, but 

 both being exactly over the line of confidence. These were 

 sights, and when the object viewed was seen m exact line 

 through them — the sun or moon, or a star — the angle was 

 read off. The cross-staff, which was probably used by Tasman, 

 was a squared rod of wood, 3ft. in length, upon which were 

 denoted angles or degrees, and having a sigiit at the eye-end. 

 Upon this, by means of a slot, slid at right angles a second 

 rod of wood, about 2ft. in length, having a sight at each 

 terminal, and through these sights the object was viewed, the 

 object-rod, if we may so call it, being adjusted upon the other, 

 which was pointed plane to the horizon, and the angle read 

 off. In this rough way was the sun's altitude taken, and 

 probably a rough attempt was often made to take what 



