Forenoon on New Seas I'j'j 



we'll be a-fishing afore the heathen." And all men bent to their oars 

 once more. 



Then suddenly it happened. An enormous, black, shiny dome rose 

 out of the gray waters not two canoe lengths ahead of the gig. Im- 

 mediately, a tremendous racket broke out, for the Indians had 

 brought with them all manner of wooden drums and any metal pots 

 or other objects that they had acquired from the white men with 

 which they could make noise. Upon all of these they now started 

 beating with the greatest vigor while uttering piercing screams and 

 shouts and banging on the water with their paddles. So great was 

 the din that it transcended even the moaning of the wind and the 

 lashing of the waves and was carried down the inlet all the way to 

 those assembled on shore at the head of the bay. The colonists in 

 the gig caught the fever and also started a prodigious uproar. The 

 result was electric and unexpected. 



The vast leisurely bulk that had broken through the surface of 

 the waves immediately rose into a high dome and half a dozen other 

 similar shapes of various sizes came rushing up from the depths. 

 The canoes of the Indians skimmed forward, breaking right through 

 the waves and riding upon their dancing crests as if they were men 

 upon the backs of galloping horses. Then an Indian arose in the 

 prow of each canoe and, steadying himself by some means un- 

 known, raised a long, heavy shaft to his shoulder. Each shaft bore 

 at its fore end an eighteen-inch harpoon either of polished bone or 

 fire-hardened wood, set with recurved stone teeth, chipped to a 

 sharpness and slenderness that would defy even a knife grinder's 

 art. To these harpoon heads, long, sinuous lines of twisted and well- 

 greased fiber were attached. These snaked away into the bellies of 

 the canoes where they were attached to four-foot lengths of light 

 logs or to inflated bladders made of deer or dog skin neatly sewn 

 and carefully sealed with a compound of rosin and other plant saps. 



The great dark bulks rose from the waters, curved slowly over, 

 and started sliding gently down into the depths again. Their motion 

 appeared leisurely, yet only a few seconds passed and then they 

 were gone. However, as the last of them did so, the hght craft of 

 the Indians darted forward and converged upon the largest before 

 more than two thirds of its back had disappeared. Then, all together, 



