s my torment that I felt I must do
something to alleviate it, even though the alleviation were to be of the
briefest. I therefore determined to try an experiment; and, stripping
off all my clothing, I plunged the garments, one by one, into the water
alongside, until they were saturated; when I donned them again. The
cool, wet contact of them with my dry, burning skin seemed to afford
some relief to my tormenting thirst; and, encouraged by this small
measure of success, I next cut a strip of leather from one of my boots
and, dividing this into small pieces, I placed them, one at a time, in
my mouth, masticating them as well as I could, and finally swallowing
them. It will, perhaps, convey to the reader some idea of the intensity
of my hunger when I say that I actually enjoyed these pieces of leather,
and that my unendurable craving for food was in an appreciable degree
appeased by them, to an extent sufficient, indeed, to enable me to lie
down and actually fall asleep.

I remember that my dreams, that night, were of feasting and drinking, of
a profusion of appetising viands and choice wines spread upon long
tables that stood under the welcome shadow of umbrageous trees and close
to the borders of sparkling streams of sweet, crystal-clear water; and
when I awoke the sun was again rising above the horizon into a sky of
fleckless blue reflected by an ocean of glassy calm unbroken by the
faintest discoverable suggestion of a flaw of wind anywhere upon its
mirror-like surface. My companions were also stirring; some of them
contenting themselves by merely grasping the gunwale of the boat and so
raising their bodies that they could look round them for a moment, and
then sinking back with a moan of despair at the sight of the breathless
calm and the blank horizon, while others--two or three whose strength
still sufficed for the extra effort--painfully raised themselves upon
their feet and scanned the horizon with a longer and more searching gaze
for a sail. There was nothing to be seen, however, in the whole visible
stretch of the ocean, save the fins of the two sharks which haunted us
so remorselessly; so, with inarticulate mutterings of despair, and
hoarse, broken curses at the ill-fortune which so persistently dogged
us, we prepared to devour our last insignificant ration of food and
consume the last drops of our hoarded water.

The next minute saw us transformed into a crew of furious, raving
maniacs; for--the food and