Any one can understand how important it was that this part of the duty should be well performed, since bights of line running out of a boat, dragged by a whale, would prove so many snares to the men's legs, unless previously disposed of in a place proper to let it escape without this risk.

The captain stood at the break of the deck, a few feet from him, and a little raised, so as to have a swing at him, and held in his hand the bight of a thick, strong rope.

Lake N. land covered with water, gulf, gulph^, bay, inlet, bight, estuary, arm of the sea, bayou

Our village lies near the centre of Moonfleet Bay, a great bight twenty miles across, and a death-trap to up-channel sailors in a south-westerly gale.

Between the black worm-eaten headlands there are little bights and havens, well screened from the wind and the commotion of the external sea, where the sand and weeds look up into the gazer's face from a depth of tranquil water, and the sea-birds, screaming and flickering from the ruined crags, alone disturb the silence and the sunshine.

There are four principal islands in the Gulf of Guinea, or Bight of Biafra, as it is usually called by English navigators, Ferdinand Poo, Princes isle, St Thomas, and Annobon, the discovery of which have been related as follows by Barbot, and his account seems the most probable.

A considerable advance, therefore, had been made since the lamented death of the illustrious Don Henry; which comprehended the whole coast of Guinea, with its two gulfs, usually named the Bights of Benin and Biafra, with the adjacent islands, and extending to the northern frontier of the kingdom of Congo.

I saw two of them force a twisted loop of rope into its mouth, and the two bights of the loop were brought together at the back of the hound's neck.

The following day was spent in examining a bight, but we were prevented from penetrating to the bottom by the shoalness of the water.

The bight is fronted by a crowded range of sandy islets, from which we did not extricate ourselves until the next day.

At daylight we left this anchorage, and proceeded to penetrate to the eastward towards a deep bight or strait; the wind was, however, so light, that we were compelled to anchor until the sea-breeze set in, when the vessel was again under sail, and proceeded onwards.

Some bights in the coast were approached with the intention of anchoring in them but the water was so deep and the ground so unfavourable for it that the stream anchor was eventually dropped in the offing in twenty-two fathoms: where during the night the tide set with unusual velocity and ran at the rate of one knot and three-quarters per hour.

Of this total of 195 ships 43 traded in Senegambia, 29 on the Gold Coast, 56 on the Slave Coast, 63 in the bights of Benin and Biafra, and 4 in Angola.

Up and on we panted, Jane partly supported by having the bight of the shikari's puggaree round her waist while he towed her by the ends.

The next day, the 30th, was spent in examining some bights in the narrow part of the channel near Gap Island, so named from a remarkable division in its centre, through which the high-tide flows, and gives it the appearance of being two islands.

The bottom of the gulf is very low, and forms two bights, separated by a point that projects for seven or eight miles.

The Gut leading to it is two miles long, and not so much as a quarter of a mile wide: in some parts we had nineteen fathoms, but in others it was deeper; it runs through a chasm in the hills, which rise abruptly, and occasionally recede and form bights, in which, in the wet season, the rains form some very considerable mountain torrents.

The western shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria is somewhat higher, and from Limmen's Bight to the latitude of Groote Eylandt, is lined by a range of low hills.

The general range of the coast, it will be observed, from Limmen's Bight to Cape Arnhem, is from south-west to north-east; and three conspicuous ranges of islands on the north-western entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the appearance of which is so remarkable as to have attracted the attention of Captain Flinders,* have the same general direction: a fact which is probably not unconnected with the general structure of the country.

The eastern shore now took a South by West direction, forming shallow bights, flanked by hills of moderate elevation; our next station was an islet at the head of Collier Bay, bearing South-South-West 1/2 West 15 miles from Eagle Point: it was in the mouth of a shoal bay about three miles deep in a West-South-West direction, the shores of which were lined with mangroves and overlooked by a high rocky ridge.

From thence to Circular Head, bearing East 1/2 South 26 miles, the shore is low and sinuous, forming three shallow bights.

The coast between fell back slightly, forming two shallow bights with the usual low monotonous mangrove shores, and extensive frontage of mud.

" After a pause of about three minutes, giving the boys time to seat themselves, and the screams, mutterings, and laughter of the rest of the audience to die away, Tiffles said: "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I will introduce you to sunrise, in the Bight of Benin.

"Oh! no, sir; it is the Bight of Benin; and I must say, though, perhaps, I am too partial, that Ceccarini never did a better thing.

From the Bight of Benin, the voyaging spectators took an excursion up the river.