The most important of our stores, particularly the flour, bread, and
coffee, were hermetically sealed, so that if actually turned over at
sea, our craft would not only right herself, but would bring her stores
right side up, in good order, and it then would be only a question of
baling her out, and of setting her again on her course, when we would
come on as right as ever. As it turned out, however, no such trial or
mishap awaited us.
While the possibility of many and strange occurrences was felt by all of
us, the danger which loomed most in little Garfield's mind was that of
the sharks.
A fine specimen was captured on the voyage, showing five rows of pearly
teeth, as sharp as lances.
Some of these monsters, it is said, have nine rows of teeth; that they
are always hungry is admitted by sailors of great experience.
How it is that sailors can go in bathing, as they often do, in the face
of a danger so terrible, is past my comprehension. Their business is to
face danger, to be sure, but this is a needless exposure, for which the
penalty is sometimes a life. The second mate of a bark on the coast of
Cuba, not long ago, was bitten in twain, and the portions swallowed
whole by a monster shark that he had tempted in this way.
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