Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/214

, 240 miles, or about one day's run of a steamer. To proceed—

Distance in favour of Diego Garcia, 187 miles, or about eighteen hours' run of a steamer. We should, in all probability, be not far wrong if we were to say that, as a mere question of figures, and in the absence of disturbing forces, the calculation would be in favour of Diego Garcia by about forty-eight hours, or two days.

"The arguments by which the partisans of the Mauritius route support their position are briefly as follows:—Diego Garcia, they say, is a low, flat island, scarcely elevated above the level of the sea—a mere point on the coral reefs of the Chagos Archipelago. The consequence would be, that it could only be approached in daylight, and in that section of the earth's surface there is no twilight. A steamer, then, which did not reach within fifteen miles of the island while daylight served, would have to lie-to during the night, and hence frequent delay. There is also another reef in the direct track between Aden and Diego Garcia, against which a steamer might readily run and go to pieces. To avoid this would necessitate much care, and cause more delay. Between Aden and the Mauritius, on the contrary, there is clear water, broken only by the high out standing group of the Seychelles, against which a