112 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



the irons in it a dead loss of more than a 

 thousand dollars, which could easily have been 

 prevented, had there heen buoys or floats to 

 have bent on to harpoons, and darted into him 

 as soon as dead. 



A few days after this mortifying event, we 

 had much better success in the capture of a 

 large whale, of the sperm kind, worth to the 

 ship at least twenty-five hundred dollars. The 

 captain's boat was also fast to another, that ran 

 off very swiftly upon being struck, along with the 

 rest of the school, making the deep boil like a 

 pot and terrifying all his comrades by the ex- 

 travagant and mad antics which the prickings of 

 those cruel irons naturally goaded him to. 

 They would have been glad enough, I have no 

 doubt, to help their brother whale in his distress, 

 and as it was they greatly endangered the lives 

 of all his pursuers. But after being lanced 

 several times, and dragging the lone boat quite 

 out of sight from the mast-head, and tiring 

 them all out, he was cut loose from, and left 

 with two harpoons buried in his blubber. 

 They would probably prove the death of him in 



