296 . . MS. AND OTHER ALMANACS. [chap. x. 



traveller can depend upon it to a point, that is quite 

 sufficient. Where any bearings for mapping purposes 

 are wanted, nothing inferior to an azimuth compass 

 should be used, and one of these I invariably carried 

 in a case sewn on to my shooting-belt, so as to lie 

 in the small of the back. An almanac should be 

 calculated and written out for the latitudes and 

 longitudes in which the traveller intends to go. A 

 simple approximation to accuracy is all one wants, 

 and the same almanac would do for hundreds of mUes ; 

 the information required is as to the times of sunrise 

 and set, and of moonrise and set, the bearings of all 

 these ; and if the same particulars be given for a few 

 zodiacal stars, it will be found of great use. Again, 

 the times of culmination and the proximate altitude 

 of three or four latitude stars should be stated for 

 every night, and for a given latitude — those stars I 

 mean which come to the meridian soon after dusk, 

 and are of such meridian altitudes as to come within 

 the range of a sextant. Occultations should of course 

 be put doAvn, and, if the traveller has a telescope large 

 enough to observe them, the eclipses of Jupiter's 

 satellites also : one lunar distance to the nearest 

 degree should be copied for every day, in order to 

 check the date ; but for longitude purposes recourse 

 must be had to that surpassingly excellent but most 

 cumbrous and ill-bovmd of English publications, the 

 " Nautical Almanac " — a work printed on blotting- 

 paper, that is spoilt by rain and torn by wind, and 

 which requires as much care in packing and in using 

 as the instruments it is designed to accompany. All 



