Having thus rid myself of my intruder I returned to my cooking.  The ship was now clear of ice, the weather was warm, the bodies of my shipmates emitted a fetid smell, but I saw and smelt nothing; all that I observed was that the barley which had been scattered on the deck by the fowls, had sprung up about the decks, and I congratulated myself upon the variety it would give to my culinary pursuits.  I continued to cook, to eat, and to sleep as before, when a circumstance occurred, which put an end to all my culinary madness.  One night I found the water washing by the side of my standing bed-place in the cabin, and jumping out in alarm to ascertain the cause, I plunged over head and ears.  The fact was, that the ship, when lifted by the ice, had sprung a leak which had gradually filled her without my perceiving it.  My fear of drowning was so great, that I ran into the very danger which I would have avoided.  I darted out of the cabin windows into the sea, whereas had I gone upon deck I should have been safe:  for a little reflection might have told me that a vessel laden with oil could not have sunk—­but reflection came too late, and benumbed with the coldness of the waters, I could have struggled but a few seconds more, when I suddenly came in contact with a spar somewhat bigger than a boat’s mast.  I seized it to support myself, and was surprised at finding it jerked from me occasionally; as if there was somebody else who had hold of it, and who wished to force me to let it go; but it was quite dark, and I could distinguish nothing.  I clung to it until daylight appeared, when what was my horror to perceive an enormous shark close to me.  I nearly let go my hold and sunk, so paralysed was I with fear, I anticipated every moment to feel his teeth crushing me in half, and I shut my eyes that I might not add to the horrors of my death by being a witness to the means.  Some minutes had elapsed, which appeared to me as so many hours, when surprised at being still alive, I ventured to open my eyes.  The shark was still at the same distance from me, and on examination I perceived that the boat’s mast or spar, to which I was clinging, had been passed through his nose in a transverse direction, being exactly balanced on either side.  The shark was of the description found in the North Seas, which is called by the sailors the blind shark.  I now perfectly understood that he had been caught and spritsail yarded, as the seamen term it, and then turned adrift for their diversion.  The buoyancy of the spar prevents the animal from sinking down under the water, and this punishment of their dreaded enemy is a very favourite amusement of sailors.