horn-like fins still were, gliding about above the water, and indicating the smallest movement of their formidable owner.  The mate observed that they went a short distance ahead of him, describing nearly a semi-circle, and then returned, doing the same thing in his rear, repeating the movements incessantly, keeping always on his right.  This convinced him that shoaler water existed on his left hand, and he waded in that direction, until he reached a small spot of naked rock.

For a time, at least, he was safe!  The fragment of coral on which the mate now stood, was irregular in shape, but might have contained a hundred feet square in superficial measurement, and was so little raised above the level of the water as not to be visible, even by daylight, at the distance of a hundred yards.  Mulford found it was perfectly dry, however, an important discovery to him, as by a close calculation he had made of the tides, since quitting the Dry Tortugas, he knew it must be near high water.  Could he have even this small portion of bare rock secure, it made him, for the moment, rich as the most extensive landholder living.  A considerable quantity of sea-weed had lodged on the rock, and, as most of this was also quite dry, it convinced the young sailor that the place was usually bare.  But, though most of this sea-weed was dry, there were portions of the more recent accessions there that still lay in, or quite near to the water, which formed exceptions.  In handling these weeds, in order to ascertain the facts, Mulford caught a small shell-fish, and finding it fresh and easy to open, he swallowed it with the eagerness of a famishing man.  Never had food proved half so grateful to him as that single swallow of a very palatable testaceous animal.  By feeling further, he found several others of the same family, and made quite as large a meal, as, under the circumstances, was probably good for him.  Then, grateful for his escape, but overcome by fatigue, he hastily arranged a bed of sea-weed, drew a portion of the plant over his body, to keep him warm, and fell into a deep sleep that lasted for hours.

Mulford did not regain his consciousness until the rays of the rising sun fell upon his eye-lids, and the genial warmth of the great luminary shed its benign influence over his frame.  At first his mind was confused, and it required a few seconds to bring a perfect recollection of the past, and a true understanding of his real situation.  They came, however, and the young man moved to the highest part of his little domain, and cast an anxious, hurried look around in quest of the wreck.  A knowledge of the course in which he had swum, aided by the position of the sun, told him on what part of the naked waste to look for the object he sought.  God had not yet forsaken them!  There was the wreck; or, it might be more exact to say, there were those whom the remaining buoyancy of the wreck still upheld from sinking into the depths of the gulf.  In point of fact, but a very little of the bottom of the vessel actually remained above water, some two or three yards square at most, and that little was what seamen term nearly awash.  Two or three hours must bury that small portion of the still naked wood beneath the surface of the sea, though sufficient buoyancy might possibly remain for the entire day still to keep the living from death.