78 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



like the ship's slush, is a perquisite of the 

 cook's. 



The fin-back, so called from a large fin on 

 the ridge of its back, looking just like the gno- 

 mon of a dial, is a large whale found all over 

 the ocean, and could it be taken, would add 

 greatly to the productiveness of the whale fish- 

 ery. It often comes near a ship with a ringing 

 noise, in spouting, like the sound of bell-metal 

 but it can seldom be so closely approached by a 

 boat as to dart a harpoon ; and when it is struck, 

 it is said to run with such amazing swiftness 

 as to render the safe management of line im- 

 practicable. Its spout at a distance, especially 

 near the Falkland Islands, where I have seen 

 them in great numbers, flashes up from the 

 ocean just like smoke from the breech of a gun 

 fired on a frosty morning. I have seen the 

 horizon thus, for an extent of many miles, 

 smoking with them, and the ocean all alive with 

 their gambols. It is not a thing beyond the 

 reach of probability that this hitherto unmolested 

 sea-rover may yet be brought within the all- 

 powerful grasp of predatory man by swivels or 



