256 THE OCEAN. 



boats, when they saw his first spout, was tremen- 

 dous ; they did not shout, but we could hear an agi- 

 tated murmur from their united voices reverberating: 

 along the surface of the deep. They flew over the 

 limpid waves at a rapid rate : the mates of the vari- 

 ous boats cheered their respective crews by various 

 urgent exclamations. ' Swing on your oars, my 

 boys, for the honour of the Henrietta!' cried one; 

 'Spring away, hearties!' shouted another; and yet 

 scarcely able to breathe from anxiety and exertion; 

 * It's our fish !' vociferated a third, as he passed the 

 rest of his opponents but a trifling distance. ' Lay 

 on, my boys!' cried young Clark, our first mate, as 

 he steered the boat with one hand and pressed down 

 the after oar with the other: 'she'll be ours yet; 

 let's have a strong pull, a long pull, and a pull 

 all together !' he exclaimed, as he paused from his 

 exertions at the after oar, which soon brought up 

 his boat quite abreast of the foremost. 



"But the giant of the Ocean, who was. only a 

 short distance before them, now appeared rather 

 'gallied,' or frightened, having probably seen or 

 heard the boats, and as he puffed up his spout to 

 a great height, and reared his enormous head, he 

 increased his speed, and went along quite as fast as 

 the boats, but for only two or three minutes, when 

 he appeared to get perfectly quiet again, while the 

 boats gained rapidly upon him, and were soon close 

 in his wake. ' Stand up !' cried young Clark to 

 the harpooner, who is also the bow-oarsman ; while 

 the same order was instantly given by his opponent, 

 whose boat was abreast of our mate's with the rest 



