184 AGRICULTURISTS. 



Pot liglit, and entered the Derwent river. This is a 

 noble stream, two and a half miles wide, and naviga- 

 ble for one hundred. The country on both sides of 

 the river appeared fertile, and it being the proper 

 season of the year, in this latitude, for the husband- 

 man to break the ground and plant his seeds, the 

 atjriculturists of the section were to be seen intent 

 on such employment. Some of our crew, whilst 

 closely watching these busy laborers, thought of their 

 earlier j'outh, when, like them, they followed a kind 

 father or elder brother in their occupations around 

 their farms at home, and on contrasting their present 

 rough and boisterous calling with the more peaceful 

 and quiet one they were formerly engaged in, they 

 w^ere rather disposed to think the farmer had the best 

 of it ; and several expressed a willingness to exchange 

 oonditions with them. They may have been sincere, 

 but I doubt it ; as those who have been employed in 

 agricultural pursuits, after once becoming identified 

 with whaling by the performance of a voyage, 

 although they may inveigh against its hardships 

 and discomforts, rarely fail to go again. Why 

 this is, is easily deduced. In the first place, in their 

 old calling, there is too much w^ork for them after 

 leading the lazj^, rollicking sailor's life aboard a 

 whaleship, where the regulations of the service allow 

 him four or five hours sleep (without whales are in 

 sight) in the daytime. A man has little inclina- 

 tion to labor from sun to sun. Again, in rural 

 localities, there is a degree of wonder and interest 

 attaching to a sailor, that makes him feel flattered 

 by the special attention displayed towards him ; and, 

 after spinning all his marvellous yarns to an admiring 



