A crane was next erected over the cavity,—a handspike forming one support and an oar the other. The crane itself consisted of the long iron arrow and socket of one of the harpoons found in the carcass of the cachalot.
Upon this was suspended, as upon a spit, so many slices of shark-meat as could be accommodated with room, and when all was arranged, a “taper” was handed up from below, and the wick set on fire.
The tarry strands caught like tinder; and soon after a fierce bright blaze was seen rising several feet above the back of the cachalot,—causing the shark-steaks to frizzle and fry, and promising in a very short space of time to “do them to a turn.”
Any one who could have witnessed the spectacle from distance, and not understanding its nature, might have fancied that the whale was on fire!
Chapter Sixty Six.
The big Raft.
While the strange phenomenon of a blazing fire upon the back of a whale was being exhibited to the eyes of ocean-birds and ocean-fishes,—all doubtless wondering what it meant,—another and very different spectacle was occurring scarce twenty miles from the spot,—of course also upon the surface of the ocean.
If in the former there was something that might be called comic, there was nothing of this in the latter. On the contrary, it was a true tragedy,—a drama of death.