268 
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 
after she did ; the Gilpin, was only thirty or forty miles off at the 
same time. 
The race was now wing and wing, and had become exciting. 
With fair winds and an open sea, the competitors had now a clear 
stretch to the equator of two thousand five hundred miles before 
them. 
The Flying Fish led the way, the Wild Pigeon pressing her 
hard, and both dropping the Gilpin quite rapidly, who was edging 
off to the westward. 
The two foremost reached the equator on the 13th of January, 
the Fish leading just twenty-five miles in latitude, and crossing in 
112° IT f the Pigeon forty miles farther to the east. At this 
time the John Gilpin had dropped two hundred and sixty miles 
astern, and had sagged off several degrees to the westward. 
580. Here Putnam, of the Pigeon, again displayed his tact as 
a navigator, and again the fickle winds deceived him : the belt of 
northeast trades had yet to be passed ; it was winter ; and, by 
crossing where she did, she would have an opportunity of making 
a fair wind of them, without being much to the west of her port 
when she should lose them. Moreover, it was exactly one year 
since she had passed this way before: she then crossed in 109°, 
and had a capital run thence of seventeen days to San Francisco. 
Why should she not cross here again ? She saw that the 4th 
edition of Sailing Directions, which she had on board, did not dis- 
countenance it, and her own experience approved it. Could she 
have imagined that, in consequence of this difference of forty miles 
in the crossing of the equator, and of the two hours' time behind 
her competitor, she would fall into a streak of wind which would 
enable the Fish to lead her into port one whole week ? Certainly 
it was nothing but what sailors call " a streak of ill luck" that 
could have made such a difference. 
But by this time "John Gilpin" had got his mettle up again. 
He crossed the line in 116° — exactly two days after the other two 
■ — and made the glorious run of fifteen days thence to the pilot 
grounds of San Francisco. 
Thus end the abstract logs of this exciting race and these re- 
markable passages, 
* Twenty-five days after that, the Trade Wind clipper came along, crossed in 112°, 
and had a passage of sixteen days thence into San Francisco. 
