LIFE ON A SOUTH SEA WHALER. 825 



among them. Louis let drive, " fastening " a whopper about twenty 

 feet long. The injured animal plunged madly forward, accompanied 

 by his fellows, while Louis calmly bent another iron to a " short warp," 

 or piece of whale line, the loose end of which he made a bowline with 

 round the main line which was fast to the " fish." Then he fastened 

 another " fish," and the queer sight was seen of these two monsters 

 each trying to flee in opposite directions, while the second one ranged 

 about alarmingly as his " bridle " ran along the main line. Another 

 one was secured in the same way, then the game was indeed great. 

 The school had by this time taken the alarm and cleared out, but the 

 other boats were all fast to fish, so that didn't matter. Now, at the 

 rate our " game " were going, it would evidently be a long while be- 

 fore they died, although, being so much smaller than a whale proper, 

 a harpoon will often kill them at a stroke. Yet they were now so 

 tangled or " snarled erp," as the mate said, that it was no easy matter 

 to lance them without great danger of cutting the line. However, 

 we hauled up as close to them as we dared, and the harpooner got a 

 good blow in, which gave the biggest of the three " Jesse," as he 

 said, though why " Jesse " was a stumper. Anyhow, it killed him 

 promptly, while almost directly after another one saved further trouble 

 by passing in his own checks. But he sank at the same time, drawing 

 the first one down with him, so that we were in considerable danger of 

 having to cut them adrift or be swamped. The " wheft " was waved 

 thrice as an urgent signal to the ship to come to our assistance with 

 all speed, but in the meantime our interest lay in the surviving black- 

 fish keeping alive. Should he die and, as was most probable, sink, 

 we should certainly have to cut and loose the lot, tools included. 



We waited in grim silence while the ship came up, so slowly, 

 apparently, that she hardly seemed to move, but really at a good pace 

 of about four knots an hour, which for her was not at all bad. She 

 got alongside of us at last, and we passed up the bight of our line, our 

 fish all safe, very much pleased with ourselves, especially when we 

 found that the other boats had only five between the three of them. 



Chain slings were passed around the carcasses, the end of the "fall," 

 or tackle rope, was taken to the windlass, and we hove away cheerily, 

 lifting the monsters right on deck. A mountainous pile they made. 

 After dinner all hands turned to again to " flench " the blubber and 

 prepare for trying out. This was a heavy job, keeping us busy until 

 it was quite dark, the latter part of the work being carried on by the 

 light of a " cresset," the flames of which were fed with " scrap," which 

 blazed brilliantly, throwing a big glare over all the ship. The last of 

 the carcasses was launched overboard by about eight o'clock that even- 

 ing, but not before some vast junks of beef had been cut off and hung 

 up in the rigging for our food supply. 



