pots of dirt and grease, and in
the evening found the table bare. But what was the consequence?
Scarcely had the tea-pot been placed on the table than it began to slip
off; had not the watchful captain quickly caught it, it would have fallen
to the ground and bathed our feet with its contents. Nothing could stand
on the polished table, and I sincerely pitied the captain that he had not
another tablecloth.

My readers will imagine that what I have described would have been quite
sufficient to make my stay in the vessel any thing but agreeable; but I
discovered another circumstance, which even made it alarming. This was
nothing less than that our little vessel was constantly letting in a
considerable quantity of water, which had to be pumped out every few
hours. The captain tried to allay my uneasiness by asserting that every
ship admitted water, and ours only leaked a little more because it was so
old. I was obliged to be content with his explanation, as it was now too
late to think of a change. Fortunately we did not meet with any storms,
and therefore incurred less danger.

Our journey lasted twenty days, during twelve of which we saw no land;
the wind drove us too far east to see the Feroe or the Shetland Isles. I
should have cared less for this, had I seen some of the monsters of the
deep instead, but we met with scarcely any of these amiable animals. I
saw the ray of water which a whale emitted from his nostrils, and which
exactly resembled a fountain; the animal itself was unfortunately too far
from our ship for us to see its body. A shark came a little nearer; it
swam round our vessel for a few moments, so that I could easily look at
him: it must have been from sixteen to eighteen feet long.

The so-called flying-fish afforded a pretty sight. The sea was as calm
as a mirror, the evening mild and moonlight; and so we remained on deck
till late, watching the gambols of these animals. As far as we could
see, the water was covered with them. We could recognise the younger
fishes by their higher springs; they seemed to be three to four feet
long, and rose five to six feet above the surface of the sea. Their
leaping looked like an attempt at flying, but their gills did not do them
good service in the trial, and they fell back immediately. The old fish
did not seem to have the same elasticity; they only described a small
arch like the dolphins, and only rose so far above the water that we
could see the mi