THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 241 



materials chmng nest-building time, and even the 

 eggs from each other, if they are left unguarded. 

 They are usually thought, when seen at sea, to 

 indicate that land is at no great distance; but this 

 indication is not always correct, for they are occa- 

 sionally seen very far from any shore, and, indeed, 

 with their swimming powers, one can readily imagine 

 that the space of a few leagues would be no object 

 of concern. The Crested Penguin, in particular, 

 lives in open sea; it has been seen some hundreds 

 of miles from land, voyaging in pairs, male and 

 female. 



The chief object of commercial speculation in the 

 Pacific is the pursuit of the Sperm Whale, than 

 which the whole wide range of human enterprise 

 affords no occupation of more daring adventure, or 

 more romantic interest. A crew of thirty or forty 

 hardy fellows leave their native land, and boldly 

 steer aw r ay to the most distant parts of the globe. 

 The tempestuous sea of Cape Horn soon finds them 

 hotly engaged in striking their giant game; or, if 

 they find it not here, they do not hesitate to stretch 

 away to the shores of New Zealand, or even to 

 seek the leviathan of the deep five thousand miles 

 farther, in the distant seas of China and Japan. 

 Now they are braving the horrors of the Antarctic 

 sea, threading an intricate and perilous course 

 through fields and bergs of floating ice, "under the 

 frozen serpent of the south-," anon they are upon 

 the equator, toiling with undaunted spirit beneath 

 the rays of a vertical sun. The bleak and barren 

 rocks of the Horn, tenanted by Penguins, are for- 



16 X 



