I reached it, and pushing at it from below, contrived to tilt it so that I caught its upper edge with my hand.

Then I saw that it was half full of meal cakes, and that it had been cast away because the meal was stinking.

It was the weight of these rotten cakes acting as ballast, that caused the tub to float upright in the water.

Now I bethought me, that if I could get into this barrel I should be safe from the sharks for a while, but how to do it I did not know.
While I wondered, chancing to glance behind me, I saw the fin of a shark standing above the water not twenty paces away, and advancing rapidly towards me.

Then terror seized me and gave me strength and the wit of despair.