THE AMERICAN WHALE - FISHERY. 275 
little rest, was all right again. On awaking from a refreshing sleep, a chum, in 
his expressions of joy at his recovery, said: "Well, Jube, how did you like it 
down there?" "0!" replied he, "it is a lonesome road to travel. There are 
neither mile-stones nor guide-boards that I could see!" Such was the reckless 
hardihood and bearing of those men whose lives were passed upon the ocean, or 
about the forbidding shores of the Antarctic regions. 
In former days, when whaling was in its highest state of prosperity, much of 
the leisure time during those long voyages, and especially while on the homeward 
passage, was occupied in "scrimshawing," by those of a mechanical turn of mind, 
who manufactured useful or fancy articles from whalebone, or rare woods obtained 
from the tropical coasts. , Canes, swifts, knitting-needles, stamps, bodkins, etc., 
were made from the jaws or teeth of the Sperm Whale ; and the shells of the 
cocoa-nut were fashioned into unique drinking -cups. Sometimes a large plate of 
baleen would be finely polished, and the history of the prominent incidents of the 
voyage engraved upon it in hieroglyphical figures. A variety of articles were 
wrought out of wood, ivory, or shell, which were carefully put by for presents to 
relatives and friends at home. Many of these articles were fine specimens of 
workmanship. The smaller blocks, and the belaying- pins, of some of the first- 
class sperm whale-ships, were made of white whalebone; and sometimes the decks 
were, with infinite pains, inlaid with diamond -shaped pieces of ivory. Many of 
the junior officers and boat-steerers kept regular journals, similar to the ship's 
log-book, some of which were examples of good penmanship, giving a brief but 
clear account of what transpired on board every consecutive day during three or 
four years ; while others were embellished with sketches of ships spoken, headlands 
and islands seen ; and whenever a whale was taken, his full figure was stamped on 
the margin of the page recording the event ; or if a whale was struck, and lost, 
his head only was represented ; while for one that was chased, but not harpooned, 
the flukes and a portion of the small were figured. 
But under the most propitious circumstances, the vast extent of ocean to be 
traversed rendered the homeward passage tedious ; for buffeting the gales off Cape 
Horn, running clown the trades, and contending with the equatorial squalls, with a 
deluge of rain, made up the general weather record ; and when approaching the 
American coast in the Atlantic, one of those heavy blows which are often experi- 
enced would sometimes drive them far off to sea again, after having seen the land 
they had left years before. At last, however, the welcome cry of "Land ho!" is again 
heard from aloft ; and soon a trim craft, with a number in her sail, and the Union 
jack flying at the main, gives the cheering and welcome news that the pilot is on 
