338 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



faid, " The marks feek fomething more fubftantial'tnan 

 ghofts." " If I am not miftaken, Rais, faicl I, this ghoft feeks 

 fomething more fubftantial too, and you fliall fee the end 

 of it." 



I struck the largeff fhark about a foot from the head 

 with fuch force, that the whole iron was buried in his bo- 

 dy. He fhuddered, as a perfon does when cold, and fhook 

 the fhaft of the harpoon out of the focket, the weapon 

 being made fo on purpofe ; the fhaft fell acrofs, kept fixt to 

 the line, and ferved as a float to bring him up when he di- 

 ved, and impeded him when he fwam. No falmon fifher 

 ever faw finer fport with a lilh and a rod. He had thirty 

 fathom of line out, and we had thirty fathom more ready to 

 give him. He never dived, but failed round the vefiel like 

 a fliip, always keeping part of his back above water. The 

 Rais, who directed us, begged we would not pull him, but 

 give him as much more line as he wanted; and indeed we 

 faw it was the weight of the line that galled him, for he 

 went round the veffcl without feeking to go farther from 

 us. At laft he came nearer, upon our gathering up the 

 line, and upon gently pulling it after, we brought him along- 

 fide, till we fattened a ftrong boat-hook in his throat : a. 

 man fwung upon a cord was now let down to cut his tail, 

 while hanging on the fliip's fide, but he was, if not abfolute- 

 ly dead, without the power of doing harm. He was eleven 

 feet feven inches from his fnout to his tail, and nearly four 

 feet round in the thickeft part of him. He had in him a 

 dolphin very lately fwallowcd, and about half a yard of 

 blue cloth. He was the largeft, the Rais faid, he had ever, 

 feen, either in the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean. 



3. About 



