VOYAGE. 57 



said I, to Joseph, " I fear we have lost the Trade." " True," 

 replied the punster ; " if we cannot raise the wind we shall not 

 be able to carry on our trade." How strange that we can thus 

 jest on our worst calamities ! But we have for the present 

 lost this pleasant wind ; the showers of to-day have completely 



taken it from us. Flapping sails are a sad sight. D 



is the only one whose happiness is now under weigh — for ours — 

 it is under weight. Dark and heavy as was the day, " grimly 

 gathering blackness" as was the sunset, the night was balmy 

 in the extreme. Could you vaporise velvet, mix it with moon- 

 light, and heat the mixture to 76°, you would make a compound 

 like our atmosphere. 



August 6th. How beautiful is a morning dressed in calm, 

 bright sunshine, after such a day as yesterday, though we 

 mourn the buried breeze. " We ought to see a shark to-day," 

 said some one. " Yes," replied Evans, " there was one haunting 

 the vessel an hour ago." Shortly after a cry of " A shark ! a 

 shark !" resounded from the poop, and soon all eyes were bent 

 over the stern to watch the motions of our destined prey. 

 Ladies and gentlemen, children and grandsires, all with a 

 common eagerness bent their eyes on the monster. He fol- 

 lowed close upon our heels, attended as usual by about half-a- 

 dozen pilot-fish, the prettiest little things you ever saw, about 

 six incles long, and beautifully barred with bright blue and 

 black ; no mackerel was ever more beautifully dressed. These 

 benevolent little fishes swam close before the monster's nose, 

 ready to inform him of any prey which might be in view, for, 

 from the position of his eyes, he cannot see objects floating on 

 the water. First we flung him out a roll of brown paper ; the 

 pilots darted at it, smelled, and let it float by. Next a nice 

 piece of pork was fastened to a strong hook, and that again to 

 a double line (for we could not afford to give pork for nothing), 

 and flung over the stern. It would appear that the pilots 

 gave a more favourable account of this savoury morsel, for 

 sharhey made a snap. Our fisherman was too quick, however, 

 in pulling, so after a flounder or two the brute left us. But 

 we were by no means tired of him, nor was his faith in us much 

 broken, for he followed on, and we determined to follow up. 

 Again the line was thrown with more dexterity, and the bait 

 drawn backwards and forwards through the water, when, just 



