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Jack Ariel, or, Life on board an Indiaman
Jack Ariel or Life on board an Indiaman Author:John Davis Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE TRADE WINDS. " 'Tis eve on the ocean, The breeze is in motion." Sea Song. As the sun went down we made the islands of Gomerf and Pal... more »ma, a part of the small archi- Qf pelago of the Canaries. In the night we lost sight of them, and when the day dawned again upon us there was no land visible. We crossed the Tropic of Cancer at the meridian of twenty degrees, estimating it from the Observatory of Greenwich, and Amphion never called around him with his harp the number of fish that our gallant ship attracted, as she brightened her copper gliding through the waters of the blue deep, with all the canvas open to the breeze that the wide yards and the projecting booms would spread. The minds of all familiar with the starry sky of the tropical seas, recur to it with exquisite feelings. During the day a haze often prevails, but the nights are always lovely. It seems to be the office of the moon in these regions to dissipate the vapours. No spectacle can be imagined more beautiful than that of her rising. The presence of the orb of night is the signal for the heavens to unveil their charms, and the ocean rejoices as it catches the lustre. It was not till the nightly sky of the tropical regions came under the observation of Baron Humboldt that any adequate notion was conveyed of its transcendant beauty. The azure of heaven is reflected from his picture, and we are haunted ever afterwards by the constellation of the Cross. He has the power which only great writers possess, to make us partake of his emotions. We share with him his melancholy when beholding the pole star depressed to the horizon, he finds himself far from his lares, become the inhabitant of a remote region under new celestial aspects. The sky where he explores it acquires a pathos, and the wat...« less