NIMBOD OF THE SEA; OR, 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Game-cock as a Time-keeper. — Cockroaches in an Economical Point of 

 View. — Medical Practice adapted to Working-men. — ^Fancies, and Si«!k- 

 ness on Board. — Cure for Scurvy. — Captain Matliew's Story of Boiled 

 Eggs. — Extravagant Use of Butter and Sugar. — Etiquette of Meals. — 

 Want of the Same on the Forecastle. — Grub, and Manner of Serving. — 

 Coral Island seen. — Small Whale, and Stove Boat. — Wash-day. — An- 

 tonio as Washer-woman, and Chemical Experiments on him. — Grand In- 

 cantation and Appearance of Satanus. — ^We make Sail for the Islands. — 

 Trade-winds. 



The Spanish game-cock is a time-keeping phenomenon. 

 The usage of his kind, from the time of Peter the Great, 

 has been to crow at or about eight bells, or 4 a.m. — an easy 

 thing at any fixed point, but it becomes an afEair of adjusts 

 ment in a ship running east or west, and changing her me- 

 ridian constantly. Remember, that for every degree of lon- 

 gitude a ship runs, her time is changed four minutes. Now, 

 we took the cock on board at the Galapagos, \8ag. 90° W., 

 and carried him to the Sandwich Islands, in long. 160° W., 

 a difference of seventy degrees, or a time difference of four 

 hours. Some days we made four degrees of longitude, and 

 set forward the watch sixteen minutes ; yet the cock would 

 keep the time, and crow at or about eight bells, or 4 a.m., 

 at the western, as he had at the eastern islands. Doubt- 

 less, one might circumnavigate the globe with one of these 

 birds, and his " shrill clarion " would wake the morn at his 

 accustomed hour, making or losing an entire day with the 

 ship. This is not accountable to the appearances of the 

 coming day ; for the time will be kept in the high latitudes 



