astern. I once struck it as it passed me, it appeared much fatigued; we
were 150 miles from the main and thirty from the nearest small sandy
island.

SHARKS.

We caught two sharks today; the sailors said that they saw fourteen or
fifteen little sharks swimming round one of these, and that when the bait
was thrown into the water and made a noise some of these swam into her
mouth: directly after they had told me this the shark was caught. I had
it opened and four young ones were found inside, two had never left the
uterus, for they were attached to it at the time, the other two were not
so attached, and were larger than the former, and swam well and strongly
when put into the water: whether or not they had ever left the mother I
cannot of course say. I have preserved two in spirits, one that was
attached and one that was not; two intestinal worms were found in the
stomach of one of the sharks.


CHAPTER 4. HANOVER BAY.

NEW AND DANGEROUS SHOAL.

November 29.

This morning at twenty minutes after nine, when in latitude 15 degrees 26
minutes 32 seconds and longitude 121 degrees 55 east, we suddenly made
the very unpleasant discovery that we were in the midst of shoals, owing
to some negligence in our lookout. This was not found out until we were
hemmed in between two, one lying not more than fifty fathoms from our