{"id":"01KG8AKZXXWNAWVV0073F1K2HC","cid":"bafkreihlpqihrwxv3nyffy5hl52zk352wmelnxkqryxkf2wjk545et5q3y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3992,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.535Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":3926,"text":"Seeing the drowsiness of Jarl and Samoa, which so often kept me from my\r\nhammock at night, forcing me to repose by day, when I far preferred\r\nbeing broad awake, I decided to let Annatoo take her turn at the night\r\nwatches; which several times she had solicited me to do; railing at the\r\nsleepiness of her spouse; though abstaining from all reflections upon\r\nJarl, toward whom she had of late grown exceedingly friendly.\r\n\r\nNow the Calmuc stood her first night watch to admiration; if any thing,\r\nwas altogether too wakeful. The mere steering of the craft employed not\r\nsufficiently her active mind. Ever and anon she must needs rush from\r\nthe tiller to take a parenthetical pull at the fore- brace, the end of\r\nwhich led down to the bulwarks near by; then refreshing herself with a\r\ndraught or two of water and a biscuit, she would continue to steer\r\naway, full of the importance of her office. At any unusual flapping of\r\nthe sails, a violent stamping on deck announced the fact to the\r\nstartled crew. Finding her thus indefatigable, I readily induced her to\r\nstand two watches to Jarl’s and Samoa’s one; and when she was at the\r\nhelm, I permitted myself to doze on a pile of old sails, spread every\r\nevening on the quarter-deck.\r\n\r\nIt was the Skyeman, who often admonished me to “heave the ship to”\r\nevery night, thus stopping her headway till morning; a plan which,\r\nunder other circumstances, might have perhaps warranted the slumbers of\r\nall. But as it was, such a course would have been highly imprudent. For\r\nwhile making no onward progress through the water, the rapid currents\r\nwe encountered would continually be drifting us eastward; since,\r\ncontrary to our previous experience, they seemed latterly to have\r\nreversed their flow, a phenomenon by no means unusual in the vicinity\r\nof the Line in the Pacific. And this it was that so prolonged our\r\npassage to the westward. Even in a moderate breeze, I sometimes\r\nfancied, that the impulse of the wind little more than counteracted the\r\nglide of the currents; so that with much show of sailing, we were in\r\nreality almost a fixture on the sea.\r\n\r\nThe equatorial currents of the South Seas may be regarded as among the\r\nmost mysterious of the mysteries of the deep. Whence they come, whither\r\ngo, who knows? Tell us, what hidden law regulates their flow.\r\nRegardless of the theory which ascribes to them a nearly uniform course\r\nfrom east to west, induced by the eastwardly winds of the Line, and the\r\ncollateral action of the Polar streams; these currents are forever\r\nshifting. Nor can the period of their revolutions be at all relied upon\r\nor predicted.\r\n\r\nBut however difficult it may be to assign a specific cause for the\r\nocean streams, in any part of the world, one of the wholesome effects\r\nthereby produced would seem obvious enough. And though the circumstance\r\nhere alluded to is perhaps known to every body, it may be questioned,\r\nwhether it is generally invested with the importance it deserves.\r\nReference is here made to the constant commingling and purification of\r\nthe sea-water by reason of the currents.\r\n\r\nFor, that the ocean, according to the popular theory, possesses a\r\nspecial purifying agent in its salts, is somewhat to be doubted. Nor\r\ncan it be explicitly denied, that those very salts might corrupt it,\r\nwere it not for the brisk circulation of its particles consequent upon\r\nthe flow of the streams. It is well known to seamen, that a bucket of\r\nsea-water, left standing in a tropical climate, very soon becomes\r\nhighly offensive; which is not the case with rainwater.\r\n\r\nBut I build no theories. And by way of obstructing the one, which might\r\npossibly be evolved from the statement above, let me add, that the\r\noffensiveness of sea-water left standing, may arise in no small degree\r\nfrom the presence of decomposed animal matter.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRHKHMM1K48G2HCW0FB6","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKZXMSBSZRRH7P1FFEBXP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:22.461Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.461Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}