Jarl's superstitious reverence for nautical instruments, and the
philosophical objections which might have been urged by a pedantic
disciple of Mercator.

Very often, as the old maxim goes, the simplest things are the most
startling, and that, too, from their very simplicity. So cherish no
alarms, if thus we addressed the setting sun--"Be thou, old pilot,
our guide!"



CHAPTER V
Seats Secured And Portmanteaus Packed


But thoughts of sextants and quadrants were the least of our cares.

Right from under the very arches of the eyebrows of thirty men--
captain, mates, and crew--a boat was to be abstracted; they knowing
nothing of the event, until all knowledge would prove unavailing.

Hark ye:

At sea, the boats of a South Sea-man (generally four in number, spare
ones omitted,) are suspended by tackles, hooked above, to curved
timbers called "davits," vertically fixed to the ship's sides.

Now, no fair one with golden locks is more assiduously waited upon,
or more delicately handled by her tire-women, than the slender whale-
boat by her crew. And out of its element, it seems fragile enough to