SECOND JOURNEY. 73 



gently-blowing breezes. The ship glides smoothly on, 

 and you soon find yourself within the northern tropic. 

 When you are on it, Cancer is just over your head, and 

 betwixt him and Capricorn is the high road to the zodiac, 

 forty- seven degrees wide, famous for Phaeton's misad- 

 venture. His father begged and entreated him not to 

 take it into his head to drive parallel to the five zones, 

 but to mind and keep on the turnpike which runs 

 obliquely across the equator. "There you will dis- 

 tinctly see," said he, "the ruts of my chariot wheels, 

 ' manifesta rotre vestigia cernes.' " " But," added he, 

 " even suppose you keep on it, and avoid the by-roads, 

 nevertheless, my dear boy, believe me, you will be most 

 sadly put to your shifts ; ' ardua prima via est,' the 

 first part of the road is confoundedly steep ! ' ultima via 

 prona est,' and after that it is all down hill ! More- 

 over, 'per insidias iter est, formasque ferarum,' the 

 road is full of nooses and bull-dogs, ' Haemoniosque 

 arcus,' and spring guns, ' ssevaque ' circuitu, curvan- 

 tem brachia longo, Scorpio,' and steel traps of uncom- 

 mon size and shape." These were nothing in the eyes 

 of Phaeton : go he would ; so off he set, full speed, 

 four-in-hand. He had a tough drive of it ; and after 

 doing a prodigious deal of mischief, very luckily for 

 the world, he got thrown out of the box, and tumbled 

 into the river Po. 



Some of our modern bloods have been shallow enough 

 to try to ape this poor empty-headed coachman, on a 

 little scale, making London their zodiac. Well for them 

 if tradesmen's bills, and other trivial perplexities, have 

 not caused them to be thrown into the King's Bench. 

 The productions of the torrid zone are un- 



Torrid zone. 



commonly grand. Its plains, its swamps, its 



