234 NEED OF AN ALCOHOLIC STIMULUS. 



alwa3'S being taken of an accident to a boat where 

 110 person is seriously injured. 



On Sunday, November the 8th, we sighted sperm 

 whales, and though the weather was foggy and dis- 

 agreeable, the boats were lowered ; but, after being 

 down all the forenoon, we returned at 1 o'clock, and 

 ate dinner. At half past one we dropped boats again, 

 when the waist-boat fastened to an immense whale, 

 which ran very rapidly ; but he soon began to spout 

 thick blood, and we counted him as ours. On the 

 appearance of blood, the bow-boat cut her line, and 

 came aboard. The captain, observing that the whale 

 continued on in his course, lowered away, and lanced 

 him also ; but still he would not turn up, although 

 incessantly discharging blood from his spout-holes 

 and the various lance-wounds in his bodv. Nio-ht 

 approached, and still the whale kept going ahead. 

 The rain was descending in torrents, whilst not the 

 slightest vestige of a breeze rippled the surface of 

 the water ; so the boats, together with their locomo- 

 tive attachment, were gradually widening their dis- 

 tance fi'om thd ship. Directly after nightfall, the 

 captain returned with his boat, leaving directions for 

 the others to keep up good lights in their boat- 

 lanterns; so that we might very easily know their 

 whereabouts. On arriving aboard, the bow-boat was 

 dispatched with refreshments and a couple of bottles 

 of New England rum, to revive those who had been 

 sitting in their boats drenched to the skin ; and, 

 surely, if there ever was a moment when men needed 

 an alcoholic stimulus to enable them to withstand 

 exposure, it was on this occasion. Just after the 

 bow-boat left, we lost sight of the light of the boat- 



