the moment, that those silent and disgusting images would stay for
us, would not abandon us to become like them, would receive us among
their goodly company! We were raving with horror and despair-
thoroughly mad through the anguish of our grievous disappointment.

As our first loud yell of terror broke forth, it was replied to
by something, from near the bowsprit of the stranger, so closely
resembling the scream of a human voice that the nicest ear might have
been startled and deceived. At this instant another sudden yaw
brought the region of the forecastle for a moment into view, and we
beheld at once the origin of the sound. We saw the tall stout figure
still leaning on the bulwark, and still nodding his head to and fro,
but his face was now turned from us so that we could not behold it.
His arms were extended over the rail, and the palms of his hands fell
outward. His knees were lodged upon a stout rope, tightly stretched,
and reaching from the heel of the bowsprit to a cathead. On his back,
from which a portion of the shirt had been torn, leaving it bare,
there sat a huge sea-gull, busily gorging itself with the horrible
flesh, its bill and talons deep buried, and its white plumage
spattered all over with blood. As the brig moved farther round so as
to bring us close in view, the bird, with much apparent difficulty,
drew out its crimsoned head, and, after eyeing us for a moment as if
stupefied, arose lazily from the body upon which it had been
feasting, and, flying directly above our deck, hovered there a while
with a portion of clotted and liver-like substance in its beak. The
horrid morsel dropped at length with a sullen splash immediately at
the feet of Parker. May God forgive me, but now, for the first time,
there flashed through my mind a thought, a thought which I will not
mention, and I felt myself making a step toward the ensanguined spot.
I looked upward, and the eyes of Augustus met my own with a degree of