e _Catamaran_ had constructed,
the other half still held good. The island was still there, before
their eyes; though completely divested of its inhabitants,--whose sudden
eviction had cost only a single shout!

The flag was still waving over it; though, to all appearance, there was
not a creature on shore that might feel pride in saluting that solitary
standard!

There could be no one; else why should the birds have tarried so long
undisturbed, to be scared at last by the mere sound of human voices?

Since there was nobody on the island, there was no need to observe
further caution in approaching it,--except so far as regarded the
conduct of their craft; and in the belief that they were about to set
foot upon the shores of a desert isle, the sailor and Snowball, with
little William assisting them, now went to work with the oars and
hastened their approach to the land.

Partly impelled by the breeze, and partly by the strength of the rowers,
the _Catamaran_ moved, briskly through the water; and, before many
minutes had elapsed, the craft was within a few hundred fathoms of the
mysterious island, and still gliding nearer to it. This proximity,--
along with the fact that the morning mist had meanwhile been gradually
becoming dispelled by the rays of the rising sun,--enabled her crew to
obtain a clearer view of the object before them; and Ben Brace,
suspending his exertions at the oar, once more slewed himself round to
have a fresh look at the supposed _land_.

"Land!" he exclaimed, as soon as his eyes again rested upon it. "A
island, indeed! Shiver my timbers if 't be a island after all! That be
no land,--ne'er a bit o't. It look like a rock, too; but there be
something else it look liker; an' that be a _whale_. 'Tis wery like a
whale!"

"Berry,--berry like a whale!" echoed Snowball, not too well satisfied at
discovering the resemblance.

"It _be_ a whale!" pronounced the sailor, in a tone of emphatic
confidence,--"a whale, an' nothin' else. Ay," he continued speaking, as
if some new light had broken upon him, "I see it all now. It be one o'
the great _spermaceti_ whales. I wonder I didn't think o't afore. It's
been killed by some whaling-vessel; and the flag you see on its back's
neyther more nor less than one o' their _whifts_. They've stuck it
there, so as they might be able to find the sparmacety when they come
back. Marcy heaven! I hope they _will_ come back."

As Ben finished this explanatory