268 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. . 



after she did ; the Gilpin was only thirty or forty miles off at the 

 same time. 



The race was now wing and wing, and had become exciting. 

 With fair winds and an open sea, the competitors had now a clear 

 stretch to the equator of two thousand five hundred miles before 

 them. 



The Flying Fish led the way, the Wild Pigeon pressing her 

 hard, and both dropping the Gilpin quite rapidly, who was edging 

 off to the westward. 



The two foremost reached the equator on the 13th of January, 

 the Fish leading just twenty-five miles in latitude, and crossing in 

 112° \T f the Pigeon forty miles farther to the east. At this 

 time the John Gilpin had dropped two hundred and sixty miles 

 astern, and had sagged off several degrees to the westward. 



580. Here Putnam, of the Pigeon, again displayed his tact as 

 a navigator, and again the fickle winds deceived him : the belt of 

 northeast trades had yet to be passed ; it was winter ; and, by 

 crossing w^here she did, she would have an opportunity of making 

 a fair wind of them, without being much to the west of her port 

 when she should lose them. Moreover, it was exactly one year 

 since she had passed this way before ; she then crossed in 109°, 

 and had a capital run thence of seventeen days to San Francisco. 



Why should she not cross here again ? She saw that the 4th 

 edition of Sailing Dii^ections, which she had on board, did not dis- 

 countenance it, and her own experience approved it. Could she 

 have imagined that, in consequence of this difference of forty miles 

 in the crossing of the equator, and of the two hours' time behind 

 her competitor, she would fall into a streak of w^ind which would 

 enable the Fish to lead her into port one whole week ? Certainly 

 it was nothing but what sailors call " a streak of ill luck" that 

 could have made such a difference. 



But by this time "John Gilpin" had got his mettle up again. 

 He crossed the line in 116° — exactly two days after the other two 

 — and made the glorious run of fifteen days thence to the pilot 

 grounds of San Francisco. 



Thus end the abstract logs of this exciting race and these re- 

 markable passages, 



* Twenty-five days after that, the Trade Wind clipper came along, crossed in 112°, 

 and had a passage of sixteen days thence into San Francisco. 



