76 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



CHAPTER VI. 



DIFFERENT CRUIZING GROUNDS AND NORTH- 

 WEST WHALING. 



" Thou didst, Lord ! create the mighty whale, 



That wondrous monster of prodigious length : 

 Vast are his head and body, vast his tail ; 



Beyond conception his unmeasured strength. 

 When he the surface of the sea hath broke, 



Arising from the dark abyss below, 

 His breath appears a lofty stream of smoke, 



The circling waves like glittering banks of snow." 



Anon. 



Different cruizing grounds Variety of Whales Gambols of 

 the Fin-back Various resorts of the Whale A veteran 

 Whaler Boat destroyed History of North-west Whaling 

 Yearly destruction of Whales Diminution of Whales. 



IT will be readily surmised that none but a 

 genuine son of the sea, a veritable Cape 

 Homer, " homeward bound," in the great 

 South Pacific could make these characteristic 

 rhymes, and many other rude but expressive 

 ones, which we have not room to transcribe 

 here. The sailor that made them says of him- 

 self, in the course of some doggrel staves of 

 autobiography, 



