1 8 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



East and West, and the true South, are the 

 points in the directions at right angles to it, and 

 in the direction opposite to it, each on the horizon. 

 The four right angles between these four cardinal 

 points, as they are called, are, in nautical usage, 

 divided each into eight equal parts, and the 

 successive points of division, from N. by E. round 

 to N. again, are called N. by E., N.N.E., N.E. by 

 N., N.E., N.E. by E., E.N.E., E. by N, E. ; E. 

 by S., and so on. A part of the early training 

 of the young navigator used to be to rattle over 

 these designations as fast as his youthful tongue 

 could utter them ; and this exercise was some- 

 what comically called "boxing the compass." 

 The successive angular spaces from point to 

 point of the compass are generally divided into 

 four equal parts, and the corresponding divisions 

 are read off by quarters, halves, and three- 

 quarters ; for example, thus N.JE., N.|E., N.f E., 

 and so on. 



17. The term "point" is habitually used without 

 any inconvenient ambiguity, sometimes to denote 

 one of the thirty-two directions corresponding to 



