48 In the South Seas 



III 



We took him home for bait, and hung him over 

 the side of the ship tied by a rope. Presently, while 

 I was smoking my pipe on deck, I heard a most 

 tremendous splashing in the sea, and, thinking that 

 some one had tumbled overboard and was drowning, 

 I ran to the side, and saw that an enormous shark 

 had swallowed my sting-ray and was biting through 

 the rope. His mouth was large enough to have 

 taken me in, head and shoulders. We don't bathe 

 much here.' 



Again he wrote to his wife from the Island of 

 Rawau : — 



' We ran down here, the other day, from Auckland, 

 with a bright, cold, crispy south wind ; the peaks of 

 the Coromandel coast and the Great Barrier standing 

 out deep purple blue, like islands, on the western 

 horizon — and are now anchored under old Sir George 

 Grey's windows. He, having gone to England, has 

 let the island to a very nice, jolly fellow who lets us 

 do just what we like. Yesterday I went out wild- 

 bull shooting for the first time, and had great sport. 

 First of all, we found twelve wild cattle and a noble 

 bull standing in an open space in the tea-tree scrub 

 not far from the sea. Just as I was settling down 

 to my shot, the dogs caught sight of the beasts, and, 

 dashing past us, sent them off helter-skelter into the 

 thick scrub. I hit a fine young heifer, however, 

 and away she went ; and soon the dogs brought the 

 bull, a cow, and another heifer to bay. I assure 

 you, strange as it may seem, that the bull actually 



