ROUTES. 343 



985. Why should she not cross here again ? She saw that the 

 4th edition of Sailing Directions^ which she had on board, did 

 not discountenance 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 wind 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. 



986. 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. 



987. The Flying Fish beat : she made the passage in 92 days 

 and 4 hours from port to anchor ; the Gilpin in 93 days and 20 

 hours from port to pilot ;* the Wild Pigeon had 118. The Trade 

 Wind followed, with 102 days, having taken fire, and burned for 

 eight hours on the way. 



988. The result of this race may be taken as an illustration as 

 to how well navigators are now brought to understand the winds 

 and the currents of the sea. 



989. Here are three ships sailing on different days, bound over 

 a trackless waste of ocean for some fifteen thousand miles or more, 

 and depending alone on the fickle winds of heaven, as they are 

 called, to waft them along ; yet, like travelers on the land, bound 

 upon the same journey, they pass and repass, fall in with and rec- 

 ognize each other by the way ; and what, perhaps, is still more re- 

 markable, is the fact that these ships should each, tliroughout that 

 great distance, and under the wonderful vicissitudes of cKmates, 

 winds, and currents which they encountered, have been so skill- 

 fully navigated, that, in looking back at their management, now 

 that what is past is before me, I do not find a single occasion, ex- 

 cept the one already mentioned, on which they could have been 

 better handled. 



* The abstract log of the Gilpin is silent after the pilot came on board. 



