an weed. From
the Arcturion, he had brought along with him a small half-keg, at
bottom impacted with a solitary layer of sable Negrohead, fossil-
marked, like the primary stratum of the geologists. It was the last
tier of his abundant supply for the long whaling voyage upon which he
had embarked upwards of three years previous. Now during the calm,
and for some days after, poor Jarl's accustomed quid was no longer
agreeable company. To pun: he eschewed his chew. I asked him
wherefore. He replied that it puckered up his mouth, above all
provoked thirst, and had somehow grown every way distasteful. I was
sorry; for the absence of his before ever present wad impaired what
little fullness there was left in his cheek; though, sooth to say, I
no longer called upon him as of yore to shift over the enormous
morsel to starboard or larboard, and so trim our craft.

The calm gone by, once again my sea-tailor plied needle and thread;
or turning laundress, hung our raiment to dry on oars peaked
obliquely in the thole-pins. All of which tattered pennons, the wind
being astern, helped us gayly on our way; as jolly poor devils, with
rags flying in the breeze, sail blithely through life; and are merry
although they are poor!

CHAPTER XVIII
My Lord Shark And His Pages

There is a fish in the sea that evermore, like a surly lord, only
goes abroad attended by his suite. It is the Shovel-nosed Shark. A
clumsy lethargic monster, unshapely as his name, and the last species
of his kind, one would think, to be so bravely waited upon, as he is.
His suite is composed of those dainty little creatures called Pilot
fish by sailors. But by night his retinue is frequently increased by
the presence of several small luminous fish, running in advance, and
flourishing their flambeaux like link-boys lighting the monster's
way. Pity there were no ray-fish in rear, page-like, to carry his
caudal train.

Now the relation subsisting between the Pilot fish above mentioned
and their huge ungainly lord, seems one of the most inscrutable
things in nature. At any rate, it poses poor me to comprehend. That a
monster so ferocious, should suffer five or six little sparks, hardly
fourteen inches long, to gambol about his grim hull with the utmost
impunity, is of itself something strange. But when it is considered,
that by a reciprocal understanding, the Pilot fish seem to act as
scouts to the shark, warning him of danger, and apprising him of the
vicinity