ALL IN A DAY'S WORK 161 



hands turned to hauling Hne, while I coiled it away in the stern 

 sheets. We had got nearly up to the whale when she took to 

 sounding, taking the line right up and down from the head of 

 the boat. I had two turns of the line round the loggerhead, 

 and was holding on as much as the boat would bear, when, 

 all at once, another large whale, that we knew nothing about, 

 shot up out of the water nearly her whole length, in a slanting 

 position, hanging directly over the boat. I threw off the turns 

 from the loggerhead, and shouted to the men to 'stem.' But 

 it was of no use; she fell the whole length of her body on the 

 boat. 



''I heard a crash! and, as I went down, I felt a pressure of 

 water directly over my head, caused, as I thought, by the whale's 

 flukes as she struck. How long I was under water I know not; 

 but I remember that all looked dark above me, and that I 

 tried very hard to shove my head through in order to breathe. 

 At last I succeeded, but what a sight was that on which I 

 gazed when I found myself on the surface of the water! About 

 a rod off was the whale that we were fast to, thrashing the water 

 into a foam with his flukes, the ocean red with blood, and the 

 crimson streams pouring from the wounds in the whale's sides 

 made by the harpoons. In another direction I could see 

 pieces of the boat floating around. At the distance of two or 

 three miles, I could occasionally get a glimpse of the ship as 

 I rode on the top of a swell, and not a human being in sight. 



''Not losing heart or hope, I struck out for a piece of the stern 

 of our once beautiful boat a few rods distant. The crew 

 came up one after another, catching at anything they could see 

 to help keep them afloat. One poor fellow came paddling 

 along with two or three oars under him, crying out that his 

 back was broken. Another of the crew and myself got him on 

 a piece of the boat that we had hold of. His thigh was broken 

 and he could not move his legs at all." 



When the second mate picked up the survivors of the luckless 

 adventure, one man had disappeared and was never seen again. 



Contrast with this somewhat sentimental narrative, which 

 shows marks of the clergyman's pen that transcribed it, the 



