ACROSS THE EQUATOR WITH THE AMERICAN NAVY 



605 





O Pnhl 

 A BANANA-UD^N DUGOUT CANOE ON GATUN LAKE, PANAMA 



s' Plioto Service 



The faintest of breezes ruffled the calm 

 water, so that one might sit all day upon 

 the quarterdeck without the pages of 

 one's book so much as fluttering. 



At night the stars were barely over the 

 mastheads and vividly bright. A lumi- 

 nous lane led straight over the waters to 

 Venus, which gleamed with such an em- 

 phasis of light that the first words of the 

 newcomers to the deck each night were 

 usually addressed to the Queen of 

 Beauty. 



EIGHT OVERCOATS AT THE EQUATOR 



The sailors spent hours in identifying 

 the constellations, although in northern 

 latitudes they had not paid a moment's 

 tribute to the heavens. 



When the neighborhood of the Equa- 

 tor was reached, light coats were needed 

 at the evening movie shows. The sailors 

 who clung to singlets clotted in the neigh- 

 borhood of the engine-room hatches, 

 from which a warm and pleasant current 

 was always flowing. 



For this reversal of the expected the 

 Humboldt Current was responsible. 

 This may not be quite as remarkable a 

 phenomenon as the Gulf Stream is on 

 the other side of the continental wall, but 

 its effects upon South American condi- 

 tions are hardly less marked. It has 

 actually shoved the South Temperate 

 Zone north ; so that while the vicinity of 

 the Equator should be the warmest place 

 in the world, it actually is not. 



