22G SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



down through the cabin floor and skylight. After the lapse 

 of an hour or two, finding the water to ebb, Gallo got down 

 into the cabin, and whilst seeking for the hatchet which was 

 usually kept there, was forced to rush again for shelter to 

 the lazarette, to avoid being drowned by the sea, which rose 

 on him with fearful rapidity. Another hour or two of long- 

 suffering succeeded, when they were rejoiced to see by the 

 dawning of the day of Thursday the 19th, that the vessel 

 was fast on the rocks, one of which projected up through the 

 skylight. The captain then went doym into the cabin, and 

 found that the quarter of the ship was stoved ; and, looking 

 through the opening, he called out to his companions above, 

 ' Grace a Dieu, mes enfans ! nous sommes sauv^s ! Je vois 

 un homme h terre ! ' Immediately after this the man ap- 

 proached, and put in his hand, which the captain seized, 

 almost as much to the terror of the poor man as to the 

 intense delight of the captain. Several people of the neigh- 

 bourhood were soon assembled ; the side of the ship was 

 cut open, and the four poor fellows were liberated from a 

 floating sepulchre, after an entombment of three days and 

 three nights in the mighty deep." There is another curious 

 detail in this story which must not be omitted. On Wed- 

 nesday afternoon, two pilot-boats fell in with the wreck 

 floating bottom up, at about a league and a half from the 

 islands. They took her in tow for about an hour, when 

 their towing ropes broke, and as night was approaching, 

 Avith a heavy sea running and bad weather threatening, they 

 abandoned her, not having the faintest suspicion that there 

 were human beings alive on board a vessel which was floating 



