l we want set blaze. You d'sire me `crow' de hole any
wida or deepa, I soon make 'im deep's a draw-well an' wide as de track
ob a waggon. Wha' say, Mass' Brace?"

"Hurraw for you, Snowy! It be just the thing. I dar say it's deep
enough, and wide as we'll want it. You ha got good brains, nigger,--
not'ithstanding what them lubbers as they call filosaphurs say. I'm a
white, an' niver thought o' it. This'll do for the furness we want.
Nothin' more needed than to pour the sparmacety into it, chuck a bit o'
oakum on the top, an' set all ablaze. Let's do it, and cook the wittles
at once."

The cavity, which Snowball had "crowed" in the carcass of the whale was
soon filled with oil taken from the case. In this was inserted with due
care a quantity of the fibre, obtained by "picking" the old ropes into
oakum.

A crane was next erected over the cavity,--a handspike forming one
support and an oar the other. The crane itself consisted of the long
iron arrow and socket of one of the harpoons found in the carcass of the
_cachalot_.

Upon this was suspended, as upon a spit, so many slices of shark-meat as
could be accommodated with room, and when all was arranged, a "taper"
was handed up from below, and the wick set on fire.

The tarry strands caught like tinder; and soon after a fierce bright
blaze was seen rising several feet above the back of the _cachalot_,--
causing the shark-steaks to frizzle and fry, and promising in a very
short space of time to "do them to a turn."

Any one who could have witnessed the spectacle from distance, and not
understanding its nature, might have fancied that the _whale was on
fire_!

CHAPTER SIXTY SIX.

THE BIG RAFT.

While the strange phenomenon of a blazing fire upon the back of a whale
was being exhibited to the eyes of ocean-birds and ocean-fishes,--all
doubtless wondering what it meant,--another and very different spectacle
was occurring scarce twenty miles from the spot,--of course also upon
the surface of the ocean.

If in the former there was something that might be called comic, there
was nothing of this in the latter. On the contrary, it was a true
tragedy,--a drama of death.

The stage upon which it was being enacted was a platform of planks and
spars, rudely united together,--in short, a raft. The _dramatis
persona_ were men,--all men; although it might have required some
stretch of imagination,--aided by a little acquaintanceship with the
circumstances th