in a very frenzy of eagerness I
clutched the unfortunate fish and bit savagely into its writhing body!

Yes, I know that the idea is inexpressibly repugnant, even revolting,
yet I solemnly declare that never in my life before had I tasted
anything so exquisitely delicious as that raw fish, never had I so
keenly enjoyed a meal. I am glad to believe that there will be very few
who can sympathise with or appreciate my enjoyment; for, reader, you
must have experienced the first agonies of starvation--which are the
worst--before you can do so. But, revolting or not, I am profoundly
convinced that I owe my life to that meal, for my senses returned to me
at once upon its completion; and although with them there also returned
a full appreciation of the acuteness of my physical discomfort, I felt
distinctly revived and reinvigorated. Moreover, with the full return of
my senses I became aware that, after all, my painful efforts had not
been nearly so ineffectual as I had imagined them to be, the land being
now appreciably nearer than it had been at daylight that morning, a few
of its bolder details being now visible.

And now once more I was sufficiently rational to take cognisance of the
flight of time. I was not at all certain of my bearings, but I felt
that the sun must certainly have crossed the meridian--that the eternity
of suffering through which I had passed could never have been compressed
into a short half-hour or so--and if I was correct in this surmise the
hour must be somewhere about three o'clock in the afternoon.

Three o'clock in the afternoon! And the land still so far away that
many further hours of toil and agony must be endured ere I might hope to
reach it! My brain reeled again at the mere prospect of it, and in a
perfect frenzy of despair I resumed my paddle, crying aloud mad,
incoherent prayers to God that He would either send me help in my
extremity, or mercifully put an immediate end to my sufferings. Then
another thought came to torment me: in something like three hours the
sun would set, darkness would encompass me about, and if the sky should
become obscured with clouds and the stars be hidden, how should I
continue to find my way? At that idea I looked about me--my mind had
been too confused, and too busily occupied with other matters to take
intelligent note of the weather during the last few hours--and I was
somewhat relieved to observe that the sky was now clear, save for a few
scattered