172 Things not generally Known. 



there is a gale every six days; another colour every six to ten 

 days ; another every ten to fourteen days : and there is a sepa- 

 rate chart for each month and each ocean. 



SOLITUDE AT SEA. 



Between Humboldt's Current of Peru and the great equa- 

 torial flow, there is " a desolate region," rarely visited by the 

 whale, either sperm or right. Formerly this part of the ocean 

 was seldom whitened by the sails of a ship, or enlivened by the 

 presence of man. Neither the industrial pursuits of the sea 

 nor the highways of commerce called him into it. Now and 

 then a roving cruiser or an enterprising whalesman passed that 

 way ; but to all else it was an unfrequented part of the ocean, 

 and so remained until the gold-fields of Australia and the 

 guano islands of Peru made it a thoroughfare. All vessels 

 bound from Australia to South America now pass through it ; 

 and in the journals of some of them it is described as a region 

 almost void of the signs of life jn both sea and air. In the 

 South-Pacific Ocean especially, where there is such a wide ex- 

 panse of water, sea-birds often exhibit a companionship with 

 a vessel, and will follow and keep company with it through 

 storm and calm for weeks together. Even the albatross and 

 Cape pigeon, that delight in the stormy regions of Cape Horn 

 and the inhospitable climates of the Antarctic regions, not un- 

 frequently accompany vessels into the perpetual summer of the 

 tropics. The sea-birds that join the ship as she clears Aus- 

 tralia will, it is said, follow her to this region, and then dis- 

 appear. Even the chirp of the stormy petrel ceases to be heard 

 here, and the sea itself is said to be singularly barren of " mov- 

 ing creatures that have life." 



BOTTLES AND CURRENTS AT SEA. 



Seafaring people often throw a bottle overboard, with a 

 paper stating the time and place at which it is done. In the 

 absence of other information as to Currents, that afforded by 

 these mute little navigators is of great value. They leave no 

 track behind them, it is true, and their routes cannot be ascer- 

 tained ; but knowing where they are cast, and seeing where 

 they are found, some idea may be formed as to their course. 

 Straight lines may at least be drawn, showing the shortest dis- 

 tance from the beginning to the end of their voyage, with the 

 time elapsed. Admiral Beechey has prepared a chart, repre- 

 senting, in this way, the tracks of more than 100 bottles. 

 From this it appears that the waters from every quarter of the 

 Atlantic tend towards the Gulf of Mexico and its stream. Bot- 

 tles cast into the sea midway between the Old and the New 



