APPALLING FORMS OF DANGER. 185 



a gam of a day with a fresh competitor just ar- 

 rived out with all the news from home. Such 

 a gam gives matter of talk and old newspaper 

 reading for a month, and nobody can tell how 

 pleasant it is but one that has experienced it. 

 A shipmaster has a chance to exchange counsel, 

 and tell stories, and let himself be familiar with 

 somebody that's new, and he is always the 

 milder, and better pleased with himself, and all 

 about him, for some days after such a gam. 



The use of these words is not a little amus- 

 ing at first to a stranger ; but I have come to 

 believe them as good and veritable English, and 

 to have as fair a claim to be placed in our 

 dictionaries as a thousand words that are spoken 

 oftener in ears polite. 



I like to talk with old whalemen upon the 

 hair-breadth escapes and perilous adventures of 

 iln-ir hazardous warfare upon the monsters of 

 die deep. It is a marvel that death, in its 

 most appalling forms, is not oftener met with. 

 Whalers, I think, have to look danger more full 

 and steadily in the face than any other class of 

 men, except soldiers. 



