Friday, August 4th.—­We were only 289 miles off Sierra Leone in the morning, and at noon therefore Tom decided to put about.  Having done so, we found that we went along much more easily and quite as fast on the other tack.  We maintained a good rate of speed on our new course, which was now nearly due west, passing a large barque with every stitch of canvas set, hand over hand.

We are still in the Guinea current, and the temperature of the water is 82 deg., even in the early morning; but the heat of the sun does not seem to have much effect upon it, as it does not vary to any great extent during the day.

[Illustration:  Father Neptune.]

In the evening we saw the Southern Cross for the first time, and were much disappointed in its appearance.  The fourth star is of smaller magnitude than the others, and the whole group is only for a very short time in a really upright position, inclining almost always either to one side or the other, as it rises and sets.

Tuesday, August 8th.—­We crossed the line at daylight.

This event caused much fun and excitement, both in cabin and forecastle.  The conventional hair was put across the field of the telescope for the unsophisticated ‘really to see the line,’ and many firmly believed they did see it, and discussed its appearance at some length.  Jim Allen, one of our tallest sailors, and coxswain of the gig, dressed in blue, with long oakum wig and beard, gilt paper crown, and trident and fish impaled in one hand, was seated on a gun-carriage, and made a capital Father Neptune.  Our somewhat portly engineer, Mr. Rowbotham, with fur-trimmed dressing gown and cap, and bent form, leaning on a stick, his face partially concealed by a long grey beard, and a large band-box of pills on one arm, made an equally good doctor to his Marine Majesty, while the part of Mrs. Trident was ably filled by one of the youngest sailors, dressed in some of the maids’ clothes; but the accompanying pictures will give a better idea than any description of mine.

[Illustration:  His Doctor (Crossing the Line)]

Soon afterwards we saw an enormous shoal of grampuses, large black fish, about 25 feet in length, something between a dolphin and a whale, with the very ugliest jaws, or rather snouts, imaginable.  They are of a predatory and ferocious disposition, attacking not only sharks, dolphins, and porpoises, but even whales, more than twice their own size.  We also passed through enormous quantities of flying-fish, no doubt driven to the surface by dolphins and bonitos.  They were much larger and stronger in the wing than any we have hitherto seen.

Lulu’s puppies, born yesterday, have been respectively named Butterfly (who survived her birth only an hour), Poseidon, Aphrodite, Amphitrite, and Thetis—­names suggested by their birth-place on the ocean close to his Marine Majesty’s supposed equatorial palace.

[Illustration:  Lulu and her Puppies]