hing more
until morning, when they perceived themselves alone upon the ocean. They
had been drifting throughout the remainder of that long, dark
night,--often entirely under water, when the sea swelled over them,--and
one and all of them many times on the point of being washed from their
frail embarkation.

By daybreak the storm had ceased, and was succeeded by a clear, calm
day; but it was not until a late hour that the swell had subsided
sufficiently to enable them to take any measures for propelling the
strange craft that carried them. Then using their hands as oars or
paddles, they commenced making some way through the water.

There was nothing in sight--neither land nor any other object--save the
sea, the sky, and the sun. It was the east which guided them as to
direction. But for it there could have been no object in making way
through the water; but with the sun now sinking in the west, they could
tell the east, and they knew that in that point alone land might be
expected.

After the sun had gone down the stars became their compass, and
throughout all the second night of their shipwreck they had continued to
paddle the spar in an easterly direction.

Day again dawned upon them, but without gratifying their eyes by the
sight of land, or any other object to inspire them with a hope.

Famished with hunger, tortured with thirst, and wearied with their
continued exertions, they were about to surrender to despair; when, as
the sun once more mounted up to the sky, and his bright beams pierced
the crystal water upon which they were floating, they saw beneath them
the sheen of white sand. It was the bottom of the sea, and at no great
depth,--not more than a few fathoms below their feet.

Such shallow water could not be far from the shore. Reassured and
encouraged by the thought, they once more renewed their exertions, and
continued to paddle the spar, taking only short intervals of rest
throughout the whole of the morning.

Long before noon they were compelled to desist. They were close to the
tropic of Cancer, almost under its line. It was the season of midsummer,
and of course at meridian hour the sun was right over their heads. Even
their bodies cast no shadow, except upon the white sand directly
underneath them, at the bottom of the sea.

The sun could no longer guide them; and as they had no other index, they
were compelled to remain stationary, or drift in whatever direction the
breeze or the currents mig