| Having made a raft from wood taken from the giant mushroom forest
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| With rigging consisting of a mast made of two staves lashed
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| Together, a yard made of a third, and a sail borrowed from their
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| Stock of rugs, they set sail from the harbour — Port Grauben
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| Named after Axel’s fiancee. |
| With a north-westerly wind propelling
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| Them along at about three miles an hour, silvery beams of light
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| Reflected here and there by drops of spray, produced luminous
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| Points in the eddy created by the raft
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| Soon all land was lost to view
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| Five days out to sea, they witnessed a terrifying battle
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| Between two sea monsters. |
| One having the snout of a porpoise, the
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| Head of a lizard, and teeth of a crocodile — an Ichthyosaurus
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| And the other, the mortal enemy of the first, a serpent with a
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| Turtle’s shell, the Plesiosaurus |