818 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The tortoise lays a thousand eggs and tells no one; the hen lays 

 a single egg and tells all the world. 



Those will die of thirst who empty the jar when it thunders in a 

 dry time. 



Handsome as a princess, poisonous as a snake. 



Small as an ant, wise as a mouse-deer. 



+«» 



LIFE ON A SOUTH SEA WHALER.* 



By FRANK T. BULLEN. 



CACHALOTS, or sperm whales, must have been captured on the 

 coasts of Europe in a desultory way from a very early date, by 

 the incidental allusions to the prime products spermaceti and amber- 

 gris which are found in so many ancient writers. Shakespeare's 

 reference — " The sovereign'st thing on earth was parmaceti for an in- 

 ward bruise " — will be familiar to most people, as well as Milton's 

 mention of the delicacies at Satan's feast — " Grisamber steamed " — 

 not to carry quotation any further. 



But in the year 1690 the brave and hardy fishermen of the north- 

 east coasts of North America established that systematic pursuit of 

 the cachalot which has thriven so wonderfully ever since, although it 

 must be confessed that the last few years have witnessed a serious 

 decline in this great branch of trade. 



Eor many years the American colonists completely engrossed this 

 branch of the whale fishery, contentedly leaving to Great Britain and 

 the continental nations the monopoly of the northern or arctic fish- 

 eries, while they cruised the stormy, if milder, seas around their own 

 shores. 



As, however, the number of ships engaged increased, it was in- 

 evitable that the known grounds should become exhausted, and in 

 1788, Messrs. Enderby's ship, the Emilia, first ventured round Cape 

 Horn, as the pioneer of a greater trade than ever. The way once 

 pointed out, other ships were not slow to follow, until, in 1819, the 

 British whale ship Syren opened up the till then unexplored tract 

 of ocean in the western part of the North Pacific, afterward familiarly 

 known as the " Coast of Japan." From these teeming waters alone, 

 for many years an average annual catch of forty thousand barrels of oil 

 was taken, which, at the average price of £8 per barrel, will give some 

 idea of the value of the trade generally. 



* From The Cruise of the Cachalot. By Frank T. Bullen. (Illustrated.) New York : D. 

 Appleton and Company. Pp. 379. 



