y as fine a line as if a sickle had been drawn along.

"Messenger! run to the cook for a piece of pork," cried the captain,
taking command with as much glee as if it had been an enemy's cruiser.

"Where's your hook, quarter-master?"

"Here, sir, here!" cried the fellow, feeling the point, and declaring
it as sharp as any lady's needle, and in the next instant piercing
with it a huge junk of rusty pork, weighing four or five pounds; for
nothing, scarcely, is too large or too high in flavour for the stomach
of a shark.

The hook, which is as thick as one's little finger, has a curvature
about as large as that of a man's hand when half closed, and is from
six to eight inches in length, with a formidable barb. This
fierce-looking grappling-iron is furnished with three or four feet of
chain, a precaution which is absolutely necessary; for a voracious
shark will sometimes gobble the bait so deep into his stomach, that he
would snap through the rope as easily as if he were nipping the head
off an asparagus.

A good strong line, generally the end of the mizen-topsail-haulyards,
being made fast to the chain, the bait is cast into the ship's wake;
for it is very seldom so dead a calm that a vessel has not some small
motion through the water. I think I have remarked that at sea the
sharks are most apt to make their appearance when the ship is going
along at a rate of somewhat less than a mile an hour, a speed which
barely brings her under command of the rudder, or gives her what is
technically called steerage-way.

A shark, like a midshipman, is generally very hungry; but in the rare
cases when he is not in good appetite he sails slowly up to the bait,
smells at it, and gives it a poke with his shovel-nose, turning it
over and over. He then edges off to the right or left, as if he
apprehended mischief, but soon returns again, to enjoy the delicious
_haut gout_ of the damaged pork, of which a piece is always selected,
if it can be found.

While this coquetry or shyness is exhibited by John Shark, the whole
after-part of the ship is so clustered with heads that not an inch of
spare room is to be had for love or money. The rigging, the mizen-top,
and even the gaff, out to the very peak, the hammock-nettings and the
quarters, almost down to the counter, are stuck over with breathless
spectators, speaking in whispers, if they venture to speak at all, or
can find leisure for anything but fixing their gaze on the monster,
who as