“Oh, yes; but suppose it made a mistake? We should be running on to some coast or other before we knew where we were.”
“We crossed the big sea,” observed Nat, “and for days and days together we did not see any land.”
I got out the chart, and showed Dick the point of Ayr, the most northern part of the Isle of Man, towards which we were now directing our course.
“We shall see it in the course of the morning. If you were to go to the mast-head, you would probably make out the land to the south of it.”
“Are we to touch at the Isle of Man?” asked Dick. “I should very much like to see some of the places described by Sir Walter Scott.”
“Papa says that we have no time,” I replied. “If we don’t make more speed than we have hitherto done, we shall not get round England before the summer is over; and the east coast is not to be trifled with. Although he says that we shall be unable to see many of the places he would like to visit, we shall nevertheless obtain a general view of the country.”
I have not said much about Nat. Poor little fellow! He was quite reconciled to his lot, and had become completely one of us. We had as much affection for him as if he had been our brother. I took a special interest in him, as he was my pupil; and I devoted a part of every day to teaching him. He was very obedient, and always did his best to learn his lessons; so that it was quite a pleasure for me to instruct him.
Dick was greatly astonished when papa came on deck with the sextant in his hand, and “shot” the sun, as it is called; that is to say, he ascertained our exact latitude by observing through the instrument the height of the sun at noon. Placing it to his eye, he watched it until it ceased to rise, the indicator showing the number of degrees it was above the horizon. The Nautical Almanack gives the height it would be at noon on that day along every parallel
so that a few figures enabled him to ascertain how far north we had sailed. The way to find the longitude, he explained to us, was by means of the chronometer. An observation is then taken of the sun, moon, or a star, which would appear at a certain height above the horizon at that particular hour.