We were sliding smoothly over the surface of an undulating sea.

The _Halbrane_ resembled an enormous bird, one of the gigantic albatross kind described by Arthur Pym--which had spread its sail-like wings, and was carrying a whole ship's crew towards space.
James West was looking out through his glasses to starboard at an object floating two or three miles away, and several sailors, hanging over the side, were also curiously observing it.
I went forward and looked attentively at the object.

It was an irregularly formed mass about twelve yards in length, and in the middle of it there appeared a shining lump.
"That is no whale," said Martin Holt, the sailing-master.

"It would have blown once or twice since we have been looking at it." "Certainly!" assented Hardy.

"Perhaps it is the carcase of some deserted ship." "May the devil send it to the bottom!" cried Roger.