SINEWS OF WAR.
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
SUMATRA AND ITS PECULIARITIES.—SNAKES AND ORANG-OUTANGS.
The boys had observed, as they journeyed to the southward, that the North Star declined lower and lower in the heavens in proportion as they receded from the Pole. At Singapore it was only a little way above the horizon, and after they passed the equator it disappeared altogether. From Singapore they had seen the Southern Cross, which is to the South what the Great Bear is to the North.
Frank made a note of this fact, and the first night they were beyond the equator they sat till a late hour on deck to study the appearance of the heavens. When they first began their observations they could not see The Cross, and Fred went to ask the Doctor the reason of its disappearance.
"It is not yet above the horizon," said the Doctor, "and will not be there till after midnight."