20 A TEDIOUS BRIEF EXPLANATION 



again, and at nightfall they may pick up the ship at 

 the rendezvous in time for a tub before dinner. 



I have often been out with parties coast-lining or 

 putting up marks, and have thoroughly enjoyed the 

 rough-and-tumble in the fresh sea air ; but once of 

 sounding in a launch, at which cheerful occupation 

 we may next take a glance, was quite enough for me. 



Taking soundings in a launch from sunrise to 

 sunset has, to my thinking, all the tedium of ploughing, 

 without a single one of the quiet alleviations that the 

 philosophic mind is accustomed to associate with the 

 latter rustic art. To and fro, in weary lines quarter of 

 a mile apart, from where the surf begins to think of 

 breaking to the lo-fathom line — in short, just where 

 the impact of the waves reaches a lively climax — the 

 Httle launch tosses and rolls. Every quarter of a mile, 

 as she runs out and back, her position is fixed (by 

 taking angles between marks ashore) and a sounding 

 is made, so that when her day's work is exhibited on 

 the plane-table, it looks like the picture of a newly- 

 ploughed field, with rows of figures for furrows. Only 

 once did I go out with a boat-sounding party, and the 

 monotony of the sky and sea (which you must view 

 from the low level of a launch to appreciate fully), the 

 monotonous scrunch of the waves and jabber of the 

 little engines, the monotonous chant of the leadsman — 

 all these, together with a certain foolish ''exposition" 

 of nausea that at length overcame me, have left on 



