336 NAVIGATION. 



sion of amusement and good-humour. Theatricals are very 

 common, and newspapers have been known to succeed in a 

 large party. To a mind dependent on a variety of external 

 objects for sources of amusement an India voyage is dull 

 enough ; but the human mind is fertile in expedients, as 

 may be seen by the following instance :— A number of 

 sporting characters being met on board an Indiaman, for 

 lack of amusement established a shooting club, and although 

 Uainj Jones bagged all the pintadoes and Mother Carey's 

 chickens, yet they kept up an incessant lire, and sometimes 

 iilled twenty or thirty head of game in a day ! Bishop 

 Heber, speaking of his voyage, says, » I find two circum- 

 stances for which at sea I was by no means prepared ; that, 

 namely, we have no great time for study, and that, for me 

 at least, there is so much which interests and occupies me, 

 that I have no apprehensions of time hanging heavy on my 

 hands." 



Sunday is strictly observed, and the captain is liable to 

 a pecuniary penalty for omitting to perform divine service. 

 The scene is very impressive ; the decks get an extra scrub, 

 awnings and curtains spread, white hammock-cloths fore 

 and aft. The capstan is the pulpit, covered with a union- 

 jack. The capstan-bars form benches for the seamen on 

 each side the forepart, of the quarter-deck ; chairs for the 

 officers and passengers abaft. At five bells (half-past ten) a 

 blue burgee is hoisted at the mizzen-peak as a signal to 

 ships in company to prevent interruption. The bell is tolled, 

 troops paraded on the poop, passengers and crew seated on 

 the quarter-deck, and divine service is performed by the cap- 

 tain, with the purser readijig the responses. In most cases 

 the crew are very attentive. 



The Canaries are eleven in number, four of them small, 

 extending from lat. 37° 40' to 29° 20' north, and from long. 

 13° 35' to 18° 6' west. They are mostly high with steep 

 Tocky shores, rendering the landing often impracticable, and 

 they are all destitute of safe harbours for large ships. After 

 passing to the westward of the Canaries, some navigators 

 prefer the route outside of the Cape de Verd Islands. The 

 north-east trade is thought to blow stronger in the open sea ; 

 but many of the company's ships pass between the islands 

 and Cape de Verd, keeping about mid-channel, by which 

 the distance is much shortened. The writer of this article 



