176 "whales has feelin's." 



fighting leviathan off Fort Dauphin was one of 

 the fiercest bits of blubber 1 ever raised out of the 

 ocean. Yet neither I nor my men had any 

 thought of surrender. We had already wasted 

 two boats on him and we meant to be paid for the 

 outlay. We insisted upon exacting a war indemity, 

 payable in sperm oil — a hundred or a hundred 

 and twenty barrels — the more the merrier ! 



We clambered up the ship's side and over the 

 rail. From the deck we could get a startling 

 view of the enemy. The infuriated beast lay 

 wounded, only a short distance from the ship, 

 thrashing around amongst the floating debris — 

 oars, paddles, lanterns, and water-kegs — to say 

 nothing of what remained of our two boats, the 

 one a stoven wreck, the other smashed to 

 splinters. It would have turned a landsman cold 

 and stiff with horror. Nor am I certain that all 

 our crew were anxious to renew the battle. 



Be that as it may, we immediately got down 

 two new spare boats from the skids overhead. 

 We made them ready for a desperate encounter 

 as we were going into the face of death. We 

 meant to have the chances in our favor. The 

 boats must be made as light as possible, so as to 

 be able to dart away in an instant, if necessary, 

 when the w r hale showed fight again. To this end,. 



