recollection of the shoal of ravenous sharks which he knew were in
the neighbourhood, or by the want of any object, as far as he could see
before him, on which to rest. Fearful as was his condition, it was to
become still more terrible. He had just glanced round and shouted to
the mate and Alice to keep up their courage, when, as he again turned
his face towards the raft, he saw, not twenty fathoms from him, a
hideous head, such as the morbid imagination sometimes pictures during a
dreadful dream. The front was of immense width, with large, savage eyes
glaring out at either side; while below appeared a large mouth, full of
formidable teeth; the body, as Nub knew, being in proportion to the size
of the head. It was indeed an enormous specimen of the hideous zygaena,
or hammer-headed shark, so frequently observed about the coast of the
South Sea islands, and scarcely less voracious and formidable than the
terrible white shark, the sailor's hated foe. Its body was
comparatively slender, but its head was dilated on each side to a
prodigious extent,--the form being that of a double-headed hammer, from
which it takes the name of "the hammer-headed shark."

Nub gazed at the creature, but his courage did not fail him. It had
apparently only just come to the surface to gaze about it, and had not
yet discovered the human beings floating near. The black had often seen
the shark bravely attacked by the natives of Otaheite and other islands,
who encounter it fearlessly as they swim off through the raging surf,
and never fail to return victorious to the shore. There was no time,
however, for consideration, for with a few turns of its tail the monster
might be up to him. He had, fortunately, a large, sharp sheath-knife
sticking in his girdle; he drew it, and keeping his eye on the shark, he
struck out so as to gain a position rather behind the creature's head,
which was turned from him. At the same moment that Nub caught sight of
the zygaena the mate also saw it; he fully expected that it would dash
at the black and seize him in its dreadful jaws. The shark, however,
was either of a sluggish nature, or perhaps gorged with food, for its
head remained above water without moving from the spot where it had at
first appeared. The mate endeavoured to prevent Alice from seeing the
hammer-head, but her eyes unfortunately fell on it.

"Oh, Mr Shobbrok, what is that dreadful creature?" she cried out.
"Will it kill poor Nub? Oh, wha