238 BOATSTEERER PITCHED ON A WHALE'S HEAD. 



furnished with teeth. iNo mark, accounting for his 

 death, was found upon the body : doubtless, he died 

 from some disease peculiar to the species. The blub- 

 ber was several inches thick, which on being tried 

 out yielded three ])arrel3 of colorless, inodorous oil. 



We remained oft' Cape Leuwin but a short time. 

 Seeing a large lone sperm whale, we lowered away 

 for him, in company with the boats of the barque 

 Pamelia ; but we did not succeed in capturing him. 

 We then, accompanied by said barque, again steered 

 for our old ground to the southward. 



On Sunday, December 6th, just as we had arrived 

 in our latitude for cruising, we sighted a large lone 

 sperm whale, at 9| o'clock in the morning; and by 

 ten — the hour when well-behaved folks in civilized 

 countries are wending their way to church — we were 

 deep in the encounter. He occasioned us but little 

 trouble: the first mate fastening to, and killing him 

 before the other boats could reach the scene of action, 

 though all pulled with a will. At the moment of dart- 

 ing the harpoon, the whale struck the boat with his 

 head, knocking a small hole through her bows, and 

 pitching the boatsteerer, who was standing up, over 

 the prow of his boat upon the top of the whale's 

 elevated huge head ; but the imperilled man, with a 

 nimble spring, quickly regained his legitimate posi- 

 tion in the boat, where he very probably felt much 

 more comfortable than mounted on such a Pesrasus. 

 This was a noble fish, and yielded us over one hun- 

 dred barrels of sperm oil, valued, at the time we left 

 home, at about sixty dollars a barrel ; making, in the 

 aggregate, the snug sum of six thousand dollars. A 

 very creditable day's work : but, then, it has to be 



