ature that he had so
clumsily permitted to escape him, or some other of its kind, the bird
was seen to stay down upon the surface of the sea,--his wings spread to
their full extent, and flapping the water with such violence as to raise
the spray in a thick cloud over and around him!

He was heard, too, giving utterance to loud and repeated screams,--not
in the tone of a conqueror; but as if he was in danger of being
vanquished, or had already become the victim of some ocean tyrant
stronger than himself!

For some seconds this inexplicable movement,--a struggle it seemed,--
continued; not in one place, but over a space of many square yards of
surface,--which appeared to be also agitated by the exertions of some
creature underneath; the bird all the while repeating its cries, and
beating the water into froth, like a huge pelican at play!

The crew of the _Catamaran_, utterly unable to account for this strange
conduct on the part of the old cock, stood upon the deck of their craft,
looking on with feelings of intense astonishment.

Even Snowball, who thought himself _au fait_ to every incident of
ocean-life, was surprised and puzzled equally with the rest.

"What be the matter wi' the creetur, Snowy?" inquired Ben, thinking
Snowball could explain its odd behaviour. "The frigate 'pears to ha'
got on its beam-end; shiver my timbers if 't ain't goin' to founder!"

"Shibber ma timber, too," rejoined Snowball, rudely pirating the
sailor's favourite shibboleth; "shibber 'um, if dis nigga know what am
de matter. Golly! someting got de ole hawk by de legs,--dat seem
sartin. Maybe 'um be shark, maybe 'um be long-nose--de--"

Snowball was going to say "sword-fish," had he been permitted to finish
his speech. But he was not; for while in the act of its delivery, with
the whites of his eyes rolling in conjectural wonder, something from
below struck the plank, upon which he was standing, and with such a
shock that the piece of timber was started from its fastenings, and
impelled suddenly upwards,--not only knocking the ex-sea-cook out of his
perpendicular position, but pitching him, as from a catapult, clear
across the _Catamaran_, and into the sea on the opposite side!

This was not all. The plank from which Snowball had been projected
instantly fell back into its place,--in consequence of its being one of
the heaviest pieces of timber in the raft,--but instead of remaining
there, it was again seen to shoot upward, then f