ee, I see!" cried William. "O, look, Lalee! What in odd fish it
is! I never saw one like it before."

This was true; for although the young sailer had already traversed many
a long league of the Atlantic Ocean, he had not yet seen a fish of the
same kind; and he might traverse hundreds of long leagues of any of the
oceans without seeing the like again.

It was, in truth, one of the most singular denizens of the great deep
that had thus come under the observation of the _Catamaran's_ crew,--so
peculiar in its appearance that, without the intervention of Ben Brace,
who at that moment called out in name, the boy could have pronounced it
for himself.

It was a fish of some eight or ten feet in length; with a long bony
snout, projecting horizontally forward, at least one third of the length
of its body. This snout was nothing more than a prolongation of the
upper jaw,--perfectly straight, of osseous structure, and tapering
towards the end like the blade of a rapier.

Otherwise the fish was not ill-formed; nor did it present that hideous
aspect characteristic of the more predatory creatures that inhabit the
ocean. For all that, there was a certain shyness combined with great
swiftness in its motion,--a skulking in its attitudes: as Snowball's
speech had already declared,--a truculent, trap-like expression in its
quick watchful eyes, that told of an animal whose whole existence was
passed in the pursuit of prey.

It was not to be wondered at that William should have mistaken the
creature for a shark: for, in addition to the fact of the sun being in
his eyes, there were points of similarity between the fish in question,
and certain species of sharks, requiring a good view and an experienced
observer to tell the difference. William perceived a large crescent
shaped fin rising several inches above the surface of the water,--a tail
lunated like that of the shark,--a hungry eye, and prowling attitude:
the very characteristics of the dreaded tyrant of the deep.

There was one thing in which the creature in question differed
materially from all the individuals of the _squalus_ tribe. Instead of
swimming slowly, it appeared to be one of the swiftest of fishes: for at
each instant as the albacores changed their position from one side of
the raft to the other, the long-snouted creature was seen to shoot to
the same side with a velocity that almost baffled the sight to keep pace
with it.

In fact, the eye could scarcely ha