The boat pushed off, and in less than ten minutes had picked up the man, who was found to be floating comfortably enough in a life-buoy. Questioned as to whether he thought there were any more survivors, he replied that he feared not, as, feeling sure that the catastrophe had been observed by us, and that we should make for the scene as promptly as possible--which assurance had been quickly confirmed by the sight of our rockets--he had simply clung to the life-buoy without making the slightest effort to shorten the distance between himself and us, believing that his best hope of deliverance consisted in remaining as near as possible to the scene of the disaster; and that, if there were any other survivors, they would most probably act in the same way, in which case he would almost certainly have seen or heard something of them in the interim; which had not been the case. Forbes, however, very properly pulled about the spot for more than an hour, the boat's crew shouting at intervals, and then lying on their oars and listening for a reply. But it was all of no avail; for, though he fell in with and picked up two buckets marked with the name of the _Northern Queen_, and passed through a few small fragments of floating wreckage, clearly indicating that he was prosecuting his search in precisely the right spot, nothing more was found, and he was at length reluctantly constrained to abandon further efforts. The rescued man--who, when brought on board, appeared not an atom the worse for his terrible adventure--gave his name as Joe Martin, and informed us that he had held the rating of carpenter on board the ill-fated _Northern Queen_. He gave us full particulars concerning the port of registry of the ship; the port from which she had sailed; the number of days out; the number of the crew, and their names, so far as he knew them--in short, all the information necessary to the identification of the ship and those on board her; and then he described the catastrophe as it had impressed itself upon him. He said that at midnight the deck had been relieved in the usual manner; and that, it being his trick at the wheel, he had arrived aft just in time to hear the "old man" (the captain) bid the mate good night, after laughingly enjoining him not to go to sleep and allow the little barque to leeward to slip past him. The night being fine and the breeze steady, the watch on deck, with the exception of the lookout, had quickly found snug corners for themselves, in which they had coiled themselves away for a quiet cat-nap; the mate had lighted his pipe and established himself in the skipper's wicker armchair; and perfect peace and quiet reigned throughout the ship. Suddenly the whole sky seemed to brighten, and, glancing involuntarily over his right shoulder--from which direction the light appeared to emanate--Martin saw the meteorite in the sky immediately over our mastheads, and at the same moment became conscious