n of the
vessel. A strong hook was immediately prepared, and baited with
a piece of salt pork, which being thrown over, was instantly
gulped by the voracious monster. But as soon as he felt the pain
occasioned by the book in his jaws, he plunged towards the bottom
of the sea with such violence, as to render the very tafferel
hot, by the rapidity of the cord gliding over it. Having
permitted him to go a certain length, he was again hauled up to
the surface, where he remained without offering further
resistance, till a boat was lowered, and a strong noose thrown
over his head. Being thus made fast to the gunwale of the boat,
he was brought round to the gangway, when the end of the noose
being cast over the main-yard, he was lifted out of the sea and
swung upon the ship's deck. Hitherto he had suffered quietly
enough, in apparent stupefaction from the pain of his jaw; but he
began now to convince us that neither life nor strength had
deserted him; lashing his tail with such violence as speedily to
clear the quarter-deck, and biting in the most furious manner at
everything within his reach. One of the sailors, however, who
seemed to understand these matters more than his comrades, took
an axe, and watching his opportunity, at one, blow chopped off
his tail. He was now perfectly harmless, unless, indeed, one had
chosen to thrust one's hand into his mouth; and the same sailor
accordingly proceeded to lay him open, and to take out his
entrails. And now it was that the tenacity of life, peculiar to
these animals, displayed itself. After his heart and bowels were
taken out; the shark still continued to exhibit proofs of
animation, by biting with as much force as ever at a bag of
carpenter's tools that happened to lie within his reach.

Being cut up, he was distributed in portions among the soldiers
and the ship's crew. The tail part only was reserved as the
chief delicacy for our cabin, which, though dry and hard, with
little flavour or taste, was on the present occasion considered
as agreeable food, because it was fresh.

CHAPTER XVI.

BUT what I principally relished, in this part of our voyage, was
the exquisite beauty of its night-scenery. To an inhabitant of
Great Britain, the splendour of a night-scene in these climates
is altogether unknown. Shining broad and full in a sky perfectly
cloudless, the moon sends forth a clear and mellow lustre, little
inferior, in point of brilliancy, to the full twilig