38 THE WHALEMAN ; OR, 



the head of the boat. Every time he brought 

 them together, the concussion could be heard at 

 the distance of at least a mile. I intended to 

 jump overboard if he caught the boat. I told 

 Mr. May hew, the third mate, who held the steer- 

 ing oar, that the whale would turn over soon to 

 spout, and that then would be our time to kill 

 him. After becoming exhausted, he turned over 

 to spout, and at the same instant we stopped the 

 boat, and buried our lances deep in " his life." 

 One tremendous convulsion of his frame fol- 

 lowed, and all was still. He never troubled us 

 more. We towed him to the ship, tried him out, 

 and took ninety barrels of sperm oil from him. 



h i "When we were cutting him in, we found 

 two irons in his body, marked with the name of 

 the ship Barclay, and belonging to the mate's 

 boat. We afterwards learned that three months 

 before, when the same whale was in lat. 5° S., 

 Ion. 105° W., he was attacked by the mate of 

 the ship Barclay, who had a desperate struggle 

 with him, in which he lost his life.' 



" Captain Norton, at the time of the adven- 

 ture with this whale, had ' seen some service,' but 

 he freely confesses that he never before nor since 

 (though he has had his buttons bitten off his 

 shirt by a whale) has come in contact with such 

 an ugly customer as ' the rogue whale,' as he 



