is was advice to the luckless animal, or a general adjuration
to everybody and everything to be prepared for the worst, we know not;
but instead of holding on, every one let go what he or she chanced to be
holding on to at the moment, and made for a place of safety with
reckless haste. The rhinoceros alone obeyed the order. It held on for
a second or two in a most remarkable manner to the mainmast, but another
lurch of the vessel cast it loose again; a huge billow rolled under the
stern; down went the bow, and the brute slid on its haunches, with its
fore legs rigid in front, at an incredible pace towards the galley.
Just as a smash became imminent, the bow rose, the stern dropt, and away
he went back again with equal speed, but in a more sidling attitude,
towards the quarter-deck.

Before that point was reached, a roll diverted him out of course and he
was brought up by the main hatch, from which he rebounded like a
billiard ball towards the starboard gangway. At this point he lost his
balance, and went rolling to leeward like an empty cask. There was
something particularly awful and impressive in the sight of this
unwieldy monster being thus knocked about like a pea in a rattle, and
sometimes getting into attitudes that would have been worthy of a dancer
on the tightrope, but the consummation of the event was not far off. An
unusually violent roll of the ship sent him scrambling to starboard; a
still more vicious roll checked and reversed the rush and dashed him
against the cabin skylight. He carried away part of this, continued his
career, went tail-foremost through the port bulwarks like a cannon-shot
into the sea. He rose once, but, as if to make sure of her victory, the
ship relentlessly fell on him with a weight that must have split his
skull, and sent him finally to the bottom.

Strange to say, the dog Neptune was the only one on board that appeared
to mourn the loss of this passenger. He howled a good deal that night
in an unusually sad tone, and appeared to court sympathy and caresses
more than was his wont from Jim Welton and the young people who were
specially attached to him, but he soon became reconciled, alas! to the
loss of his crusty friend.

The storms ceased as they neared the shores of England. The carpenter
and crew were so energetic in repairing damages that the battered vessel
began to wear once more something of her former trim aspect, and the
groups of passengers assembled each evenin