the shipping at anchor before it, making their
sails, where loosed to dry, glance like leaves of gold, and their spars,
and masts, and rigging like wires of gold, and gilding their flags,
which were waving majestically and slow from the peaks in the evening
breeze; and the Moorish-looking steeples of the churches were yet
sparkling in the glorious blaze, which was gradually deepening into
gorgeous crimson, while the large pillars of the cathedral, then
building on the highest part of the ridge, stood out like brazen
monuments, softening even as we looked into a Stonehenge of amethysts.

We had not pulled fifty yards, when we heard the distant rattle of the
muskets of the sentries at the gangways, as they discharged them at
sundown, and were remarking, as we were rowing leisurely along, upon
the strange effect produced by the reports, as they were frittered away
amongst the overhanging cliffs in chattering reverberations, when the
captain suddenly sung out, "Oars!" All hands lay on them. "Look there,"
he continued--"There--between the gigs--saw you ever any thing
like that, gentlemen?" We all leant over; and although the boats,
from the _way_ they had, were skimming along nearer seven than five
knots--_there_ lay a large shark; he must have been twelve feet long at
the shortest, swimming right in the middle, and equi-distant from both,
and keeping _way_ with us most accurately.

He was distinctly visible, from the strong and vivid phosphorescence
excited by his rapid motion through the sleeping waters of the dark
creek, which lit up his jaws, and head, and whole body; his eyes were
especially luminous, while a long wake of sparkles streamed away astern
of him from the lashing of his tail. As the boats lost their speed,
the luminousness of his appearance faded gradually as he shortened
sail also, until he disappeared altogether. He was then at rest, and
suspended motionless in the water; and the only thing that indicated
his proximity, was an occasional sparkle from the motion of a fin. We
brought the boats nearer together, after pulling a stroke or two, but he
seemed to sink as we closed, until at last we could merely distinguish
an indistinct halo far down in the clear black profound. But as we
separated, and resumed our original position, he again rose near the
surface; and although the ripple and dip of the oars rendered him
invisible while we were pulling, yet the moment we again rested on them,
there was the monst