e hours which ever
haunted the author.

Monday.--At noon the captain took an observation, by which it appeared
that Ushant bore some leagues northward of us, and that we were just
entering the bay of Biscay. We had advanced a very few miles in this bay
before we were entirely becalmed: we furled our sails, as being of
no use to us while we lay in this most disagreeable situation, more
detested by the sailors than the most violent tempest: we were alarmed
with the loss of a fine piece of salt beef, which had been hung in
the sea to freshen it; this being, it seems, the strange property
of salt-water. The thief was immediately suspected, and presently
afterwards taken by the sailors. He was, indeed, no other than a huge
shark, who, not knowing when he was well off, swallowed another piece
of beef, together with a great iron crook on which it was hung, and by
which he was dragged into the ship. I should scarce have mentioned the
catching this shark, though so exactly conformable to the rules and
practice of voyage-writing, had it not been for a strange circumstance
that attended it. This was the recovery of the stolen beef out of the
shark's maw, where it lay unchewed and undigested, and whence, being
conveyed into the pot, the flesh, and the thief that had stolen it,
joined together in furnishing variety to the ship's crew.

During this calm we likewise found the mast of a large vessel, which the
captain thought had lain at least three years in the sea. It was stuck
all over with a little shell-fish or reptile, called a barnacle, and
which probably are the prey of the rockfish, as our captain calls it,
asserting that it is the finest fish in the world; for which we are
obliged to confide entirely to his taste; for, though he struck the fish
with a kind of harping-iron, and wounded him, I am convinced, to death,
yet he could not possess himself of his body; but the poor wretch
escaped to linger out a few hours with probably great torments.

In the evening our wind returned, and so briskly, that we ran upwards
of twenty leagues before the next day's [Tuesday's] observation, which
brought us to lat. 47 degrees 42'. The captain promised us a very speedy
passage through the bay; but he deceived us, or the wind deceived him,
for it so slackened at sunset, that it scarce carried us a mile in an
hour during the whole succeeding night.

Wednesday.--A gale struck up a little after sunrising, which carried us
between three and f