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CORRESPONDENCE.
jin. Eiivron.
Sin, — I lionr there is to bo a newspaper
published 011 hoard, and as gentlemen of tho
press pretend to know everything, and have un
answer, right or wrong, to cvory query, f
hasten to submit to your wisdom a problem
which all tho ship have been puzzling them
selves with over since tlioy canto 011 hoard, and
this is — tlio division of time. Dolls in different
parts of tlio ship are struck at intervals, n cer
tain number of times ; hut what relation such
number of strokes hears to tlio timo of night
or day, I liavo 111 vain endeavoured to
discover. A gentleman who lind made n voy
age before, and who, 011 tho strength of it, sets
up for an authority on all matters of sea life,
took it upon himself' to explain the matter to
1110, nnd upon listening to his tedioiisnoss forn
long time, I got hold of an idea that thounm-
ber of strokes, divided hy two, gave tho timo
of day. Tlio lecture being finished ubout two
o'clock in the afternoon, tho hell very oppor
tunely chimed lour, whicli furnished an apt il
lustration of tlio principlo ; and so it went 011
— live six, soveii-eiglit, each epocli confirming
me in tho truth of my rule, until, when I
looked for liino bells, lo, it struck
0110! I linstoned to my instructor to de
mand nil explanation, when ho informed
1110 (which, indeed, ho lind done at first,
though I lind not observed it) tlint the score
begins afresh nt tho end of every four hours.
Away I wont again, confident tlmt I now pos
sessed tlio key to tho mystery — two, threo, four
came in succession, and then live you will
say ; nothing of the kind : one, anil so I give
tho mutter up unless you can assist mo. Some
facts I liavo got hold of and cling to, in tlio
hopo of elaborating a principle out of lliem nt
some timo. 1 linvo found out tlint when tho
bell sLrikos two, it moans 0110 ; when it strikes
sovou, it moans lmlf-pnst seven ; and tlint
oneo in twenty four hours, it condescends to he
literal nml correct, nmlnt eiglitin tho morning
it actually strikes eight mid no moro. 1 leavo
tlie matter in your blinds, and
J. 11111, fc.ii-,
Your obedient servant,
DKIJ.K.
Timo at sea is divided into periods of four
bonis, called wntclies, in each of which tlioro
nro eight liali-hours, nnd for oneh of thoso the
bell is struck oneo. Tho watch from four till
eight 11.111., however, is broken into two periods
of two lionrs each, called dog-wntolios ; nnd at
six p.m. one of these being completed,' the
reckoniug begins anew with the bell at liall'-pnst
six, and so on till eight. \Aro hope our corre
spondent will know the timo of day for tlie
future. — Ed. TP". S.J.
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