from aloft when the brig swung right in among the
trees, and the end of a thick bough which had been shivered by
lightning, or broken off by a storm, ran through the head of the
mainsail just under the gaff. There we lay with our fore-topgallant and
topsail yards caught in the branches, and our mainsail securely locked.

"`A pretty job it will be to get clear,' I thought. Though at present
the brig had suffered no great damage, she was in a position in which it
would not have been satisfactory to remain long, and I therefore ordered
a boat to be lowered to carry out a kedge. As it was necessary,
however, first to clear our mainsail and yards, I sent some hands aloft
with axes to chop away the network of vines, the nooses of which nearly
caught two or three fellows and swung them off the yards into the trees.

"The most excited person on board was the midshipmen's pet, Master
Spider. Seeing the green foliage overhead, he became inspired with the
idea of visiting the haunts of his childhood. The owners, not thinking
of this, had allowed him to be loose: up the rigging he sprang, with Tom
and Gerald after him. They were very nearly as nimble as he was. He
had reached the fore-topgallant-yard, close to which temptingly hung a
mass of vines just such as one might suppose he had been accustomed to
swing in, in his early days: into it he sprang, and began to climb one
of the many widespreading branches to which the vines were attached.
Tom and Gerald, afraid of losing him, followed and were soon lost to
sight among the dense foliage. I did not myself see this, but supposed
them still to be among the men on the yards, for I was busy at the
moment in getting the boat lowered, and pointing out the direction in
which the kedge was to be carried. Calling the men down, I ordered them
to haul away on the warp to get the head of the brig out again into the
stream. While, however, the branch was fixed in the mainsail, this
could not be done. Needham, who saw what was necessary, called for the
assistance of the pilot, who was a wonderfully strong man, and having
lowered the peak, the two put their shoulders under the boom, and by a
wonderful exertion of strength lifted it out of the crutch and let it
run forward. At that moment a large mass fell from the branch on deck:
I turned round to ascertain what it was, when I saw issuing from the
fragments myriads of large ants, which went crawling all over the deck.

"`Oh! they wi