ge that,
wasn't it? And so every man on board thought.

"A very faint breeze was springing up again, and I was on the weather
side of the ship, which was towards the land from which the wind came,
when suddenly Gil Saul, who was in the same battery and captain of my
crew, grips my arm tight. `It's coming! it's coming!' he said right in
my ear, and then the same horrible foul smell wafted right over the ship
again, and a noise was heard just as if a herd of wild horses were
sucking up water together.

"At this moment the fog lifted for a bit, and we could see clear for
about a couple of miles to windward, where the captain and first
lieutenant and all the hands had their eyes fixed as if expecting
something.

"By George! you could have knocked me down with a feather, I tell you!
I never saw such a sight in my life, and may I never see such another
again! There, with his head well out of the water, shaped like a big
bird, and higher in the air than the main truck of the ship, was a
gigantic reptile like a sarpint, only bigger than you ever dreamt of.
He was wriggling through the water at a fearful rate, and going nearly
the same course as ourselves, with a wake behind him bigger than a line-
of-battle ship with paddle-wheels, and his length--judging by what I saw
of him--was about half a mile at least, not mentioning what part of his
body was below the water; while he must have been broader across than
the largest sperm whale, for he showed good five feet of freeboard.

"The captain and first lieutenant were flabbergasted, I could see; but
Captain Manter was as brave an officer as ever stepped, and he pulled
himself together in a minute, as the fog, which had only lifted for a
minute, came down again shutting out everything from view so that we
could not see a yard from the side. `Don't be alarmed, my men,' he
sings out in his cheery voice, so that every hand could hear him, `it's
only a waterspout that is magnified by the fog; and as it gets nearer
we'll give it the starboard broadside to clear it up and burst it.'

"`Ay! ay!' sez the men with a cheer, while the smell grew more awful and
the snorting gushing sound we had heard before so loud that it was quite
deafening, just immediately after the captain spoke, when it had stopped
awhile.

"As for poor Gil, he had never lost the grip of my arm since we sighted
the reptile, although he had the lanyard of his gun in his right hand
all the same.

"`Fire!' sez t