Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/44

 18 any of those wonderful sights which landsmen are taught to expect. There was neither a well-stretched line in the air, nor a white streak on the waters; nor did the needle tremble, nor the ship groan, nor the heavens give any peculiar indications. We sailed along at the rate of four knots an hour, on a cool and pleasant day, over an unruffled sea; and it was only by observation at noon that we ascertained our having crossed the mystic boundary. We are promised a visit at night from Neptune, on passing his peculiar territory.

9th.—Last night I got a view, for the first time, of the Southern Cross, a beautiful constellation, which corresponds with the Plough or Bear of the northern hemisphere; its shaft points to the south pole, and at midnight it is vertical. All the stars here appear with greater splendour than in our part of the northern hemisphere; the sky being cloudless, and the atmosphere clear. After admiring the brilliancy of Venus until eleven o'clock, I bathed, and retired to rest about midnight. I have not told you exactly how my day passes on board:—We rise about six; and breakfast on coffee, biscuit, and cold meat, or fried pork and rice, about eight; sometimes on stirabout and molasses: after breakfast, I read and write (occasionally going on deck to see any novelty which may occur there)