1850.] 



the Coromandel Coast. 



103 



No. 2. 



To ascertain the rate of Sailing. 

 By previous practice the Native sailor knows his rate of walking; 

 in other words he has instructed himself to tell how many miles 

 an hour he is walking, at different degrees of celerity. He throws 

 a piece of w T ood overboard at the stern of the vessel, and walks to- 

 wards the stern keeping pace with the wood floating past ; then he 

 remembers his rate of walking, to which the progress of the vessel 

 must necessarily be equal 



No. 3. 



To ascertain the direction of the Current. 

 This is performed by throwing into the sea during the prevalence 

 of a calm, a ball of ashes kneaded together by water. As it slowly 

 sinks it separates, leaving a long broad tail, like a comet's, behind it 

 which is wafted away in the run of the current, making a line of 

 direction apparent to an observer standing a little over the surface. 



No. 4. 



Description, Sfc, of the Mud Docks. 

 In the first instance, when a ship is to be docked, she is floated 

 into a basin direct from the sea or inlet : then the entrance is 

 closed. The basin is surrounded by a high mud bank which forms 

 it The level of the water in the basin upon which the vessel now 

 floats, is raised by scraping the mud from the banks into the basin, 

 levelling it at the bottom of the water, and so raising the bottom 

 of the basin which must of consequence elevate its contained water. 

 This process is carried on until the ship is considerably higher than 

 the level of the contiguous sea or inlet, the water is then suffered 

 to run off, two beams are placed transversely under the ship, stem 

 and stern, resting on the new and exposed bottom of the basin. 

 Perpendicular shores are then put to her, and the earth levelled 

 until she is on the same plane as the adjoining ground. 



No. 5. 



Un docking the Ship from her elevated posit km. 

 Four sets of cables are used, each one is coiled into the shape of 

 a solid cone, one fake or coil not touching the one beneath it, soft 



