nced to read the service,
and a deep drowsiness came over me. The lesson was a part of the first
chapter of Genesis--the weird history of creation. He had reached the
twenty-eighth verse when I dropped asleep. It could have been only an
instant's forgetfulness, for when I awoke he had not finished the
reading of the same verse, but in that instant a vision had passed
before me.

"A female of marvellous beauty rose from the water. I had seen the
long green locks, the eyes of azure, and the glossy neck--it was
Tethys, the queen of the sea-nymphs. She was begotten of humidity in
the remote beginning, and seemed even now cloudy and incorporeal.
Euripius, the divinity of whirlpools, lay in the waves at her feet,
projecting a spectrum of spray, in an arch, above her head.

"'Man,' she said, or rather rippled, for it was like the even voice of
waters, 'your love of nature, the boundlessness of your kindness, the
daring of your speculation, the profoundness of your introspection,
have made you one of us. Awake, and hear our decree!'

"She melted into vapor, and disappeared. I opened my eyes. The crew
were grouped about the deck, the mate was reading the lesson, the
words which I heard were: 'Have dominion over the fish!'

"'A fall! a fall!' was shouted from the maintop. The men on watch had
discovered the long-expected prey.

"'Man the boats!' cried the captain; 'all hands be spry! Where away,
look out?'

"'Sou'-west!' answered the crow's-nest, 'about two leagues. There must
be hoceans of 'em! They 'eave like water-spouts, and, lor! how they
lobtail!'

"The seven boats were arranged in curved shape, so as to form a
semicircle around the animals; and the captain's, of which I took the
helm, formed the left tip of the crescent. We pulled steadily for a
half-hour over a smooth sea, and came at length so close to our
victims that we could count them. Truly it was 'a fall'! A few cubs
played recklessly around the surface; but there was an enormous bull,
whose bulk was much greater than that of the ship's hull, which came
once in full view, dived vertically, and beat the water with his
terrible tail, making such billows that a storm seemed to be raging.
The other animals swam in the froth and foam thus developed, now
plunging to the far depths, now shooting their huge bodies into the
air, and falling with a splash, as of the emptying of the ocean. The
scene was so exciting that even my wonderful discoveries passed out of
mi