These alterations in
the courses tell the foremast hand nearly all he wants to know,
slight as they are. You will most probably sight Amsterdam
Island or St. Paul's in about 77deg. E.; but whether you do or
not, the big change made in the course, to say nothing of the
difference in the weather and temperature, say loudly that your
long easterly run is over, and you are bound to the northward
again. Soon the south-east trades will take you gently in hand,
and waft you pleasurably upward to the line again, unless you
should be so unfortunate as to meet one of the devastating
meteors known as "cyclones" in its gyration across the Indian
Ocean. After losing the trade, which signals your approach to
the line once more, your guides fluctuate muchly with the time of
year. But it may be broadly put that the change of the monsoon
in the Bay of Bengal is beastliness unadulterated, and the south-
west monsoon itself, though a fair wind for getting to your
destination, is worse, if possible. Still, having got that far,
you are able to judge pretty nearly when, in the ordinary course
of events, you will arrive at Saugor, and get a tug for the rest
of the journey.
But on this strange voyage I was quite as much in the dark
concerning our approximate position as any of the chaps who had
never seen salt water before they viewed it from the bad eminence
of the CACHALOT's deck.
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