224 THE WHALEMAN ; OR, 



About one year from this time, — November 

 5, 1854, — Captain Norton had arrived at Lahaina, 

 from a cruise in the Ochotsk, in the ship North- 

 ern Light, of Fairhaven. He left that port in 

 December for home ; and, after a passage of one 

 hundred and ten days, the ship was anchored in 

 the harbor of New Bedford, on the 10th of 

 April, 1855. A day or two after, he reached his 

 native place, to greet relatives, friends, and towns- 

 men, whose apprehensions for a long time had 

 been that they should see his face no more. 



The results of his three and a half years' ab- 

 sence from home are briefly these : the first sea- 

 son in the Arctic, in the Citizen, he obtained twen- 

 ty-six hundred barrels of oil, which were wholly 

 lost when the ship was cast away ; seventy barrels 

 of sperm were left at the islands, which he took 

 on his outward-bound passage — ■ this was saved ; 

 nine months and eight days among the natives, 

 and taken off in July ; the second season on 

 board of other ships, in the capacity of guest and 

 passenger ; the third season in the Northern 

 Light, in the Ochotsk Sea, where he obtained 

 twenty-four hundred barrels of oil. 



Thus, in misfortune, there was still a good 

 share of prosperity. Not only was one cargo 

 lost, but it was nearly replaced again by another 

 in the ordinary time for which ships are fitted 

 out. 



