A Large Cyclone 500 Miles In
Diameter, Rushing Furiously Round Its Centre, Will Still Advance In A
Right Line, Only Very Slowly Indeed.
A small one 50 or 60 miles across
will progress more rapidly.
One vessel sailed for five days at the rate
of 12, 13, and 14 knots an hour round one of these cyclones before the
wind all the time, yet in the five days she had made only 187 miles in a
straight line. I tell this tale as it was told to me, but have not
studied the subjects myself. Whatever saloon passengers may think about
a gale of wind, I am sure that the poor sailors who have to go aloft in
it and reef topsails cannot welcome it with any pleasure.
CHAPTER II
Life on Board - Calm - Boat Lowered - Snares and Traps - Land - Driven off
coast - Enter Port Lyttelton - Requisites for a Sea Voyage - Spirit of
Adventure aroused.
Before continuing the narrative of my voyage, I must turn to other
topics and give you some account of my life on board. My time has
passed very pleasantly: I have read a good deal; I have nearly finished
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, am studying Liebig's
Agricultural Chemistry, and learning the concertina on the instrument of
one of my fellow-passengers. Besides this, I have had the getting up
and management of our choir. We practise three or four times a week; we
chant the Venite, Glorias, and Te Deums, and sing one hymn.
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