ime their water was
again getting low. All the ice had been melted, and a good deal of the
seal blubber burnt up. What remained was becoming far from pleasant,
but the doctor insisted that it was too valuable to throw overboard.
Numerous birds were seen at different times, and several came near
enough for the captain and doctor to get a shot at them. Several
petrels and Cape pigeons were killed; but it was necessary to haul down
the sails in order to pick them up. Though Harry did not like the
delay, they were too valuable an addition to their larder to be lost.
It was wonderful all this time how Mrs Morley and her daughters bore up
under the trials to which they were exposed. Poor Mrs Twopenny was the
only invalid, she constantly requiring the doctor's attention. Thus day
after day passed away, Paul Lizard in vain trying to catch a porpoise or
dolphin, or some other fish. Their dark backs were frequently seen as
they swam by at a tantalising distance, and sometimes a whole shoal
would appear, by the curious way in which they rose and sank as they
darted forward near the surface, making it seem as if they were
performing somersaults in the water. Willy could scarcely believe that
they only rose to breathe, and that their backs but slightly moved out
of the horizontal position, their peculiar shape giving them the
appearance of diving. Whales, too, frequently appeared close at hand,
sending forth from their blow-holes a column of foam-like breath--the
spray which they forced up falling round in graceful jets. The doctor
explained that the white spout which appeared was the warm breath of the
animal, and not, as the sailors often suppose, a mass of foam forced
from its nostrils. The whales were, however, too formidable antagonists
to attack, even had one come near enough to allow Paul Lizard to send
his harpoon into its back.

"No, no," he observed; "I know what I am about. We should get but
little change out of one of those creatures if we interfered with it.
Much more likely to have the boat capsized or sent by its flukes to the
bottom."

The doctor had now again recourse to his still to obtain a supply of
water. One of the casks was always left full, in case of emergency,
should bad weather come on, and it be impossible to keep the stove
alight. Again they were on a short allowance of food; the wet flour had
become perfectly mouldy, and the biscuits were in very little better
condition. Starving people