"Four bells of the afternoon watch had struck--two o'clock, that is--when Rickett, the third mate, and one or two men, went out to the arm of the spritsail-yard across the bowsprit, where they lowered away a heavy pitch-pot with a long strip of yellow bunting made fast to it, and weighted a little at the loose end, to mark the _set_ of the current; and as the pot sank away out on her larboard bow, one could see the bright-coloured rag deep down through the clear blue water, streaming almost fairly _north_. She appeared to be nearing the turn of the eddy, and the chief officer's spirits began to rise. Rickett screwed one eye close, and looked out under his horny palm with the other, doubtful, as he said, that we should 'sight the land off-deck before that. As for this trifle of an air aloft, sir,' said he, 'I'm afraid we won't----' 'Hoot, Mr Reckett,' put in Macleod, stepping one of his long trouserlegs down from over the quarter-deck awning, like an ostrich that had been aloft, 'ye're aye afraid; but it's not easy to see aloft, Mr Fench, sir.' 'How does the land lie _now_, Mr Macleod?' asked the first officer. 'Well, I wouldn't wonder but we soon dropped it, sir--that's to _east'ard_, I mean,' replied he; 'though it's what we call a bit mountainous, in Scotland--not that unlike the Grampians, Mr Fench, ye know!' 'Hang your Grampians, man!--what's _ahead_ of us, eh?' said the mate hastily. 'Why, sir,' said the Scotchman, 'there _is_ some more of it on the nor'-east, lower a good deal--its just flush with the water from here, at present, Mr Fench--with a peak or two, trending away too'ard north; but the light yonder on our starboard bow makes them hard for to see, I may say.' "In fact, some of the men forward were making it out already on the starboard bow, where you could see the faint ragged shape of a headland coming out, as it were, of the dazzle beyond the water, which lay nickering and heaving between, from deep-blue far away into pale; while almost at the same time, on her starboard quarter, where there was less of the light, another outline was to be seen looming like pretty high land, though still fainter than the first. As for the space betwixt them, for aught one could distinguish as yet, there might be nothing _there_ except air and water over against the ship's side.