TOWING A DEAD WHALE. 7-3 



the most laborious, and fraught, too, with 

 danger, when the ship is distant and nightfall 

 at hand. Under a fierce equatorial sun, to row 

 for hours, perhaps right to windward or in a 

 dead calm, with a carcass of seventy tons' weight 

 dragging astern, will blister the hands and 

 strain the muscles of the hardiest whaleman, 

 and wearied nature will sometimes give out. 

 But it is cheerfully endured for the end in 

 view, of cutting in, and trying out, and stowing 

 down a " hundred barreler," that will net to 

 the ship three thousand or fifteen hundred 

 dollars, according as it is a sperm or a right 

 whale. If "money makes the mare to go," 

 so does oil the crew of a " blubber hunter," 

 from the green cabin-boy to the sable doctor. 



