then dinner for the day, their supper of to-morrow night,--in
short, all the raw provisions which they had on their hands? By doing
this, not only would a fire be no longer necessary, but the fish so
cooked,--or even thoroughly dried in the blaze and smoke,--would be
likely to keep better. In fact, fish thus preserved,--as is often done
with herrings, ling, codfish, mackerel, and haddock,--will remain good
for months without suffering the slightest taint of decomposition. It
was an excellent idea; and, Ben having communicated it to the others, it
was at once determined that it should be carried out.

There was no fear of their running short in the staple article of fuel.
Ben assured them that the "case" of a _cachalot_ of the largest size,--
such as the one beside them,--often contained five hundred gallons of
the liquid spermaceti! Besides, there was the enormous quantity of junk
and blubber,--whole mountains of it,--both of which could be rendered
into oil by a process which the whalers term "trying." Other
inflammable substances, too, are found in the carcass of the
sperm-whale: so that, in the article of fuel, the crew of the
_Catamaran_ had been unexpectedly furnished with a stock by which they
might keep up a blazing fire for the whole of a twelvemonth.

It was no longer any scarcity of fuel that could hinder them from
cooking on a large scale, but a scantiness of the provisions to be
cooked; and they were now greatly troubled at the thought of their
larder having got so low.

While Ben Brace and Snowball stood pondering upon this, and mutually
murmuring their regrets, a thought suddenly came into the mind of the
sailor which was calculated to give comfort to all.

"As for the provisions in our locker," said he, "we can easily 'plenish
them, such as they be. Look there, nigger. There be enough raw meat to
keep ye a' cookin' till your wool grows white."

The sailor, as he said this, simply nodded toward the sea.

It needed no further pointing out to understand what he meant by the
phrase "raw meat." Scores of sharks,--both of the blue and white
species,--attended by their pilots and suckers, were swimming around the
carcass of the _cachalot_. The sea seemed alive with them. Scarce a
square rod, within a circle of several hundred fathoms' circumference,
that did not exhibit their stiff, wicked-looking dorsal fins cutting
sharply above the surface.

Of course the presence of the dead whale accounted