Chips couldn't tell much before he went under, but the Southern Cross was boarded by the Devil's Admiral sure enoughdidn't they find a sextant out of her in a store in Shanghai?

I caught the sextant as it passed by me; but the saddle-bags became the prey of the whirlpools.

A scramble of three miles over very rugged rocks brought us to the highest point, which was found to be not more than 500 feet above the sea; our journey, however, turned out to be fruitless, the magnetic attraction of the volcanic rocks of which the hills are composed being so great as to reverse the needle, which varied so much that I could not even make use of the compass to take angles, and I had omitted to bring a sextant.

I moved my chair slightly south, and pretended to regard the apple-blossom, and when Nevin went into the house and brought out something which dimly resembled a ship's sextant I had the extreme presence of mind not to make any inquiries.

The water swept overboard only a sextant and a pair of saddle-bags.

"It was singular that Humboldt should advise me to use the sextant; it was the first instrument that I ever used, and it is a very difficult one.

I got the requisite observation for latitude during the night; and since necessity is ever the mother of invention, read off my sextant by a torch made for the occasion from pieces of paperbark.