THE ISLAND OF CURACAO. 



27 



CAR •_^„B .._B_... E 



the harbor, headed slightly to the 

 north of west, and before night- 

 fall Curasao had sunk out of our 

 sight. We ran along with a 

 strong current and wind in our favor, and the ship rolled consider- 

 ably, but fortunately I had no recurrence of my unpleasant expe- 

 rience on the Venezuela. 



The second night before reaching Curasao, I saw for the first 

 time that constellation of which we have all so often heard, the 

 Southern Cross, and this 

 night we had a much better 

 view of it. I must confess 

 to being greatly disappoint- 

 ed. The stars are not so 

 bright as I had been taught 

 to expect, nor is the cross a 

 symmetrical one in any way. 

 The arms are not perpen- 

 dicular to the vertical part, 

 nor are they of equal length. 

 The accompanying figure 



gives the Southern Cross as represented in the geography that I 

 studied when a schoolboy, and a second figure of the cross in more 

 nearly its true proportions. 



5 



THE SOUTHERN CROSS OF THE GEOGRAPHIES AND 

 THE TRUE SOUTHERN CROSS. 



