perceived that their lives were no longer in
peril.

The occurrence needed no explanation. The detached timbers of the gig
floating about on the water, and the shock they had experienced, told
the tale with sufficient significance. They had been "fluked" by the
bull-whale, whose fan-shaped tail-fins, striking the boat in an upward
direction, had shattered it as easily as an eggshell, tossing the
fragments, along with the contents, both animate and inanimate, several
feet into the air.

Whether it were done out of spite or wanton playfulness, or for the
gratification of a _whalish_ whim, the act had cost the huge leviathan
no greater effort than might have been used in brushing off a fly; and
after its accomplishment the old bull went bowling on after its
frolicsome school, gliding through the water apparently with as much
unconcern as if nothing particular had transpired!

It might have been nothing to him,--neither the capsize nor its
consequences; but it was everything to those he had so unceremoniously
upset.

It was not until they had fairly established themselves on the raft, and
their tranquillity had become a little restored, that they could reflect
upon the peril through which they had passed, or realise the fulness of
their misfortune.

They saw their stores scattered about over the waves,--their oars and
implements drifting about; and, what was still worse, the great
sea-chest of the sailor, which, in the hurry of the late transfer, had
been packed full of shark-flesh, they could not see. Weighted as it
was, it must have gone to the bottom, carrying its precious contents
along with it.

The water-cask and the smaller one containing the Canary were still
afloat, for both had been carefully bunged; but what mattered drink if
there was no meat?--and not a morsel appeared to be left them.

For some minutes they remained idly gazing upon the wreck,--a spectacle
of complete ruin. One might have supposed that their inaction proceeded
from despair, which was holding them as if spellbound.

It was not this, however. They were not the sort to give way to
despair. They only waited for an opportunity to act, which they could
not do until the tremendous swell, caused by the passage of the whales,
should to some extent subside.

Just then the sea was rolling "mountains high," and the raft on which
they stood--or rather, crouched--was pitching about in such a manner,
that it was as much as they could do to