the ** lO-off " he backs it up — lands his disk b«:h1nd
it a foot or two, to make it difficult for its owner to
knock it out of that damaging place and improve
his record. When the inning is played out it may



Following the Equator 63

be found that each adversary has placed his four
disks where they count ; it may be found that some
of them are touching chalk lines and not counting;
and very often it will be found that there has been a
general wreckage, and that not a disk has been left
within the diagram. Anyway, the result is recorded,
whatever it is, and the game goes on. The game
is 100 points, and it takes from twenty minutes to
forty to play it, according to luck and the condition
of the sea. It is an exciting game, and the crowd
of spectators furnish abundance of applause for
fortunate shots and plenty of laughter for the other
kind. It is a game of skill, but at the same time
the uneasy motion of the ship is constantly inter-
fering with skill; this makes it a chancy game, and
the element of luck comes largely in.
We had a couple of grand tournaments, to
determine who should be ** Champion of the Pa-
cific ' ' : they included among the participants nearly
all the passengers, of both sexes, and the officers
of the ship, and they afforded many days of
stupendous interest and excitement, and murderous
exercise — for horse-billiards is a physically vio-
lent game.
