n feet
from beam to tail, so that we had no difficulty in raising it,
especially as we had a line fastened to the tail, which one of us could
haul upon, while the other (with a curious hand windlass, which looked
like some diabolical instrument of torture) raised the beam.

We used to drain the net fairly well before bringing it inboard, and
then turn the contents out on the floor, then kneeling down we would
search among them just like a couple of misers counting their gold;
indeed, upon one occasion, we _did_ have gold to count among our other
items.

It was the bowl portion of a golden goblet, from which the foot had
become detached. From its encrusted appearance it must have lain for
many years in the sea. On another occasion we felt something heavy in
the net as we hauled, and knowing that in the spot in which we were then
trawling, there were no rocks, we naturally wondered what it could be.
As we hove up the net, I remarked that I hoped it was not a dead body,
which remark made Alec feel quite queer, as he thought it might be one
of his comrades. He refused to help me haul for fear such should be the
case. I quickly pointed out to him that it could not be the case, as
apart from a corpse being devoured by the voracious fish, it would swell
as it decomposed, and gas being formed in it, it would buoy the body up,
and float it to the surface, when the send of the waves would waft it
away, no one knew whither.

"Now," said I to Alec, "your messmates have been dead these four months,
and nothing of them now remains round this island, except perchance
their skeletons, and we are not likely to come upon _them_, so bear a
hand and let's see what luck has sent us."

Slowly the net came up, and as the water left it there appeared among
the brown seaweed two huge pieces of rock tied to something which looked
very horrid. And horrid it turned out to be, for it was the remains of
the man I had buried months before, that is to say, the leg bones, with
some few remaining tendons and other parts, which the fish had not
stripped from the bones. We were glad to find that the upper part with
the skull attached had fallen off, so turning the net inside out, I for
a second time buried the poor man, or rather all that was left of him.

One day in July, a very warm day, we had been fishing and caught but
little, so were having an hour's chat and smoke as our boat rocked
lazily on the clear blue water, when somehow the conversation