on, driven home with right good will. The
men on deck who held the line hauled away on the slack, while others
stood by with bowlines in their hands ready to slip them over the
shark's head and tail.

"Haul away," cried the mate, who was on deck in a moment; and the savage
creature, in spite of its convulsive struggles, was hoisted up, and lay
a helpless captive on the forecastle. Here it continued to plunge and
strike out with its tail, keeping the seamen at a respectful distance.
Now and then one would rush in with a handspike and endeavour to give it
a blow, which might have settled it; but so rapid were its movements
that it was necessary to be wary, as one stroke of that tail would have
been sufficient to break a man's leg. The shark was at length killed
and cut up. In spite of its cannibal propensities, many of the
emigrants gladly accepted portions, and even the seamen did not refuse
to eat a slice of their hated foe.

While the day presented much to occupy the attention, the night also
afforded many objects of interest. The constellations of the northern
hemisphere were now sinking one by one in the ocean; the Great Bear
disappeared, followed by the Polar Star, and in their stead, towards the
south, rose the Southern Cross, each night appearing higher and higher
in the firmament. Charles and his sisters gazed at the beautiful
constellation with deep interest. Beneath its glittering light they
expected to pass the greatest portion of their future life; and it
seemed to welcome them to the new world to which they were bound.
Charles confessed that, interesting as it was, it scarcely equalled in
beauty several of the northern constellations on which he had been
accustomed to gaze. Now, too, the Magellanic clouds appeared in the
heavens, composed probably of countless millions of worlds, so far away
that the human mind can scarcely calculate their distance from this tiny
world of ours. At night, also, Charles, with his sisters at his side,
often watched the track of the ship on the ocean, which appeared like a
broad road dotted with brilliant and innumerable stars; while on either
side the waves were lighted up by thousands of electric sparks,
appearing here and there; now lost altogether, now dispersed, as the
waves rose and fell. Sometimes, when the wind freshened, and a huge sea
broke against the bows with a tremendous crash, the spray appeared all
alight, rising in the air to fall on deck like drops o