108 TPIE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



under water much longer than the common 

 whale, Poor fellows ! they would find keen 

 human enemies enough where they were going, 

 and not unlikely the blubber sides of one or 

 more of them would soon be headed up in the 

 hold of some whaler, and biding their time to 

 fill honourable lamps with light ten thousand 

 miles off. 



We felt the cold on this side the American 

 continent, in the rude Atlantic, more than ever 

 we did in that other ocean, which does not belie 

 its name, or even than at the pitch of the Cape, 

 in sixty degrees south. One morning, just after 

 breakfast, I had the pleasure of climbing the 

 mizzen rigging to witness the capture of our 

 first Atlantic whale. The ocean was in its 

 stillest, loveliest mood, its breast heaving only 

 like a sleeping infant's ; the morning sun most 

 glorious; the sky without a cloud, and that 

 glimmer of reflection from the molten steel 

 mirror beneath, which I remember being so 

 much struck with the first time I ever saw the 

 sublime sight when a boy. 



There were two whales, which proved, as 



