WHALING SAILORS' YARNS. 167 



As I got in at the bow, I saw the captain 

 come over the stern. " Hallo ! " said he, " where 

 have you been to ? " " After the whale/' said 

 I. " And I have been after you/' said the cap- 

 tain. We had a good laugh, wrung our hair, 

 and started for the whale again. She lay still, 

 with her jaws open, and head towards the boat; 

 the rest of her body was under water, so that 

 she gave no chance to kill. We lay still, watch- 

 ing her motions. All at once she let her jaws 

 fly back, striking the boat in the bow, and 

 smashing a hole through her. The boat began 

 to fill; but, fortunately, we had a jacket ready, 

 and stopped the hole up, and so we kept from 

 filling, and pulled up to the whale again. 



This time she headed the mate, and lay her 

 whole length broadside toward us. We had 

 nothing to do but to pull up and in lance, the 

 whale lying perfectly still all the time. In 

 twenty minutes she went into her flurry, and 

 soon after lay fin out. We took her alongside 

 the ship, and commenced cutting her in ; but 

 it took all the next day to get her all in. She 

 measured over seventy-five feet in length, and 



