CHAPTER X 
ONDAY, 7th Nov.—LbX. 23.45 ; long. 36.7. Out 
A of the tropics. As I turned in last Light, there 
was an ominous humming in the rigging, which, taken 
with the flight of a great army of small whales to the 
south, led us to expect a change of weather. And 
sure enough, we have it this morning, a glorious gale 
from the north bowling us along straight for Rio. 
Grey-backs are rushing alongside us, with glass-green 
hollows and tossing manes, each burst of spray is 
woven with a shred of rainbow colour caught from 
the sun that we are now leaving behind us in the 
north. 
In the night we made two and four knots, this morning 
five-and-a-half, and now, at mid-day, we are waddling 
along as gaily as a duck in a thunder-storm, the wind 
right aft, reeling off eight knots an hour, a terrific speed 
for us. The merchant clippers one hears talked of would 
be doing their fifteen to twenty knots quite easily ! 
Tuesday, %th Nov, — The blue sea of the tropics is 
changing to a greyer colour, the sun shines through a 
windy haze, and there is a bracing feeling in the air that 
we have almost forgotten in the luxurious heat of the 
line. 
120 
