ight-coloured fish among the corals and sea-weed. Peterkin also made a
fishing line, and Jack constructed a number of hooks, some of which were
very good, others remarkably bad. Some of these hooks were made of iron-
wood, which did pretty well, the wood being extremely hard, and Jack made
them very thick and large. Fish there are not particular. Some of the
crooked bones in fish-heads also answered for this purpose pretty well.
But that which formed our best and most serviceable hook was the brass
finger-ring belonging to Jack. It gave him not a little trouble to
manufacture it. First he cut it with the axe; then twisted it into the
form of a hook. The barb took him several hours to cut. He did it by
means of constant sawing with the broken pen-knife. As for the point, an
hour's rubbing on a piece of sandstone made an excellent one.

It would be a matter of much time and labour to describe the appearance
of the multitudes of fish that were day after day drawn into our boat by
means of the brass hook. Peterkin always caught them,--for we observed
that he derived much pleasure from fishing,--while Jack and I found ample
amusement in looking on, also in gazing down at the coral groves, and in
baiting the hook. Among the fish that we saw, but did not catch, were
porpoises and sword-fish, whales and sharks. The porpoises came
frequently into our lagoon in shoals, and amused us not a little by their
bold leaps into the air, and their playful gambols in the sea. The sword-
fish were wonderful creatures; some of them apparently ten feet in
length, with an ivory spear, six or eight feet long, projecting from
their noses. We often saw them darting after other fish, and no doubt
they sometimes killed them with their ivory swords. Jack remembered
having heard once of a sword-fish attacking a ship,--which seemed strange
indeed; but, as they are often in the habit of attacking whales, perhaps
it mistook the ship for one. This sword-fish ran against the vessel with
such force, that it drove its sword quite through the thick planks; and
when the ship arrived in harbour, long afterwards, the sword was found
still sticking in it!

Sharks did not often appear; but we took care never again to bathe in
deep water without leaving one of our number in the boat to give us
warning, if he should see a shark approaching. As for the whales, they
never came into our lagoon, but we frequently saw them spouting in the
deep water bey