laced him.

Scarce an hour during the six days had he permitted to pass in idleness.
As already stated, he had collected ample materials from the wreck
floating around him. Out of these he had formed a good-sized raft,
having spent much time and labour in giving it strength and security.
This accomplished, and all the provisions he could find safely stored
upon it, he had devoted the rest of his time to fishing.

There were many fish in the neighbourhood of the wreck. Fearful fish
they were too: for they were sharks: the same that had made such havoc
among the unfortunate creatures who had constituted the cargo of the
slaver. These voracious monsters,--though satiated for a time with
their human prey,--had not forsaken the spot where the _Pandora_ had
gone to pieces; but on the square mile of surface strewed by the
floating fragments of the wreck they could still be seen in pairs, and
sometimes in larger numbers, with their huge sail-like fins projecting
high above the water, veering about as if once more hungry, and
quartering the sea in search of fresh victims.

Snowball had not succeeded in capturing any of the sharks, though he had
spared no pains in endeavouring to do so. There were other large fish,
however, that had made their appearance in the proximity of his raft,
attracted thither by the common prospect of food promised by the wreck
of the slaver. There were albacores, and bonitos, and dolphins, and
many other kinds of ocean fish, rarely seen, or only upon such
melancholy occasions. With a long-handled harpoon, which Snowball had
succeeded in securing, he was enabled to strike several of these
creatures; so that by the evening of the sixth day, his larder was
considerably increased,--comprising, in the way of fish, an albacore, a
brace of bonitos, with three satellites of the sharks,--a pilot-fish and
two sucking-fish.

All these had been ripped open and disembowelled, after which their
flesh, cut into thin slices, and spread out on the tops of the empty
water-casks that surrounded the raft, was in process of being cured by
drying in the sun.

Befriended by the fine weather, Snowball had succeeded, one way and
another, in accumulating no mean store of provisions; and, so far as
food went, he felt confident, both for himself and his companion, of
being able to hold out not only for days, but for weeks or even months.

He felt equal confidence in regard to their stock of water. Having
gauged the k