SAILING THE SEVEN SEAS 



071 



THE LIONS HEAD FROM ROVERS ROCK AT SEAPOINT : CAPE TOWN, UNION OP 



SOUTH APRICA 



Living at the Galle Face Hotel, listen- 

 ing to the ceaseless roar of the waves 

 dashing upon the sand, with the monsoon 

 blowing steadily from the southwest, we 

 were much interested in the life about us. 



The men, with their curious dress, long 

 hair coiled up on the top of the head and 

 crowned by a semicircular comb of tor- 

 toise shell, seemed almost effeminate. 



Sitting near the window of the hotel 

 room, having tea and toast in the early 

 morning, one must keep watch on the 

 bold ravens or his toast will disappear if 

 his back is turned for a moment. 



The climate can be described as moist 

 and hot, but tempered by cool sea breezes 

 on the coast, the European being under 

 the necessity of protecting the head from 

 the rays of the sun, while the native goes 

 bareheaded and apparently pays no atten- 

 tion to the heat. 



The Europeans are fortunate in having 

 a cool mountain resort in the interior at 



Nuwara Eliya, within a few hours' 

 train travel, where they may find relief 

 from the heat of the coast. 



MAGNETIC NEEDLE SETTLES LAWSUIT 



The practical side of our work was em- 

 phasized at Colombo. There was a case 

 being tried in court involving the location 

 of a boundary line, and the claimant in- 

 sisted that the line should be relocated 

 according to the compass variation which 

 existed when the first survey was made. 

 The defendant argued that the compass 

 variation had changed in the interim. 



Since we were now repeating our ob- 

 servations at exactly the same spot in the 

 observatory grounds at which we had 

 observed in 191 1, we were called upon to 

 furnish our data showing the change 

 which had taken place during the inter- 

 vening years. 



As soon as we had completed our ob- 

 servations and computations, the data 



