THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 259 



their harpoons, but not one of them could get near 

 enough to give him a fatal lance. He towed them 

 all in various directions for some time, taking care 

 to descend below the surface the moment a boat 

 drew up over his flukes, or otherwise drew near, 

 which rendered it almost impossible to strike him 

 in the body, even when the lance was darted, 

 although the after part of his ' small' was perfo- 

 rated in a hundred places : from these wounds 

 the blood gushed in considerable quantities, and 

 as the poor animal moved along, towing the boats, 

 he left a long ensanguined stain in the Ocean. At 

 last, becoming weak from his numerous and deep 

 wounds, he became less capable of avoiding his foes, 

 which gave an opportunity for one of them to pierce 

 him to the life! Dreadful was, that moment, the 

 acute pain which the leviathan experienced, and 

 which roused the dormant energies of his gigantic 

 frame. As the life-blood sruro-led thick through the 

 nostril, the immense creature went into his  flurry' 

 with excessive fury ; the boats were speedily sterned 

 oft', while he beat the water in his dying convul- 

 sions with a force that appeared to shake the firm 

 foundation of the Ocean." * 



Few occurrences in a long voyage are more gene- 

 rally interesting and exciting than the sight, and par- 

 ticularly the speaking, of another ship. Even in 

 crossing the Atlantic this is the case ; but how much 

 more in a voyage to the Pacific, where many months 

 may elapse without the appearance of a vessel ! The 



* Hist, of Sperm Whale, p. 176. 



