Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/555

 bright wave dashing o'er me, and the pure air above, to the heavy sod and the crowded churchyard.

7th.—And now once more for England. Saw a schule of whales—the fin-back; one of them was near the ship, blowing up the water, about six feet high; the large Greenland whale spouts much higher.

A Chinese calculation was shown us in the evening, which is worthy the trouble of discovering: take a pack of cards,—the ace counts as one, knave, queen, king, as ten each; look at the top card (suppose it be an ace), lay it with its face upon the table, and add to it as many cards as will make the number twelve,—that is, eleven cards on the back of the ace; then take the next card from the pack (suppose it be a knave), place it face downwards, count it as ten, and add to the back of it two cards, which will make it twelve; then take the next card (suppose it a four), place it in the same manner, and add eight cards to it, which will make it twelve, counting each card as one. In this manner dispose of the whole pack; there may be some cards over, lay them aside. The conjurer will then see the number of the packs, and the number of cards remaining over, and will be able by calculation to tell the amount of the pips on the bottom cards, which he has not seen, that are with their faces downwards on the table. This calculation is ingenious, and may be discovered by algebra.

14th.—The nine-knot breeze continues, which we have had for the last two days; and the "SX" pitches so much I can scarcely write.

WATERSPOUTS.

17th.—Lat. N. 32° 15´, long. W. 27° 55´. At noon heavy clouds were around us, and a waterspout appeared astern; it was at a considerable distance. The sea whirled, and rose up to meet it to a great height; it continued for about twenty minutes, and was too far astern to do us any injury. The trade was strong, and we were going nine knots an hour. At the same time another waterspout appeared about three miles off, on the starboard,—it was coming towards the ship from the south