officers on board; he will certainly lose, and he richly merits it.

CAPTAIN Such a wager cannot be fair on my side; however, I'll take him
up, if I return his money afterwards.

During the above conversation Tray continued in the same situation, and
confirmed me still more in my former opinion. I proposed the wager a
second time, it was then accepted.

Done! and done! were scarcely said on both sides, when some sailors who
were fishing in the long-boat, which was made fast to the stern of the
ship, harpooned an exceeding large shark, which they brought on board
and began to cut up for the purpose of barrelling the oil, when, behold,
they found no less than _six brace of live partridges_ in this animal's
stomach!

They had been so long in that situation, that one of the hens was
sitting upon four eggs, and a fifth was hatching when the shark was
opened!!! This young bird we brought up by placing it with a litter of
kittens that came into the world a few minutes before! The old cat was
as fond of it as of any of her own four-legged progeny, and made herself
very unhappy, when it flew out of her reach, till it returned again. As
to the other partridges, there were four hens amongst them; one or more
were, during the voyage, constantly sitting, and consequently we had
plenty of game at the captain's table; and in gratitude to poor Tray
(for being a means of winning one hundred guineas) I ordered him the
bones daily, and sometimes a whole bird.