THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 91 



night from his short nap to the duties of the steersman, his 

 nodding head bows to the dancing compass, and the ship 

 luffs, to wake him by the flapping of the sails aloft. Up 

 goes the helm, and he again sleeps until aroused by the cry 

 of the mate, " Mind your helm there, and keep her steady." 

 "Ay, ay, sir;" and, in spite of the mate's little thunder, the 

 sailor has another nap, and the sails again shiver in the wind. 

 The drowsiness is also felt in other ways. One may sit 

 across the slender swaying " royal-yard," with the bare feet 

 dangling in space a hundred and twenty feet over the sea, 

 the thin shroud-stay fitted in the groove of the shoulders, 

 and one arm hooked in the halyard. Thus the sleepy " look- 

 out *' swings, " rocked by the billows to and fro," and, in 

 spite of the awful danger, his eyes close. Wrapped in ob- 

 livion as sweet as in bed of down, he sleeps, preserved from 

 positive danger by the self-poise and wakeful instinct of the 

 perched bird (perhaps). No officer observing a man in this 

 position will call to him, lest, with the habit of instant obedi- 

 ence, the unfortunate should, with the routine "Ay, ay, sir," 

 start from his narrow perch to almost certain death. The 

 feeling of nervousness and sleepiness is chronic in the whale- 

 man's life on an active cruise over hunting-grounds. 



Consider their hardships, you good souls who are truly 

 concerned for Jack's temporal and spiritual welfare, and 

 don't give him over to perdition for his thoughtless carouse, 

 when he is first thrown from the privations of the sea into 

 the allurements and temptations of the shore. Remember that 

 he has endured long months, in which the disagreeable has 

 only been varied by the dangerous, in which he has ranked 

 next below the captain's dog. Make allowance for this poor 

 waif of the sea, when the land-sharks, the keeper of the grog- 

 shop or the brothel, entice him with false smiles, and with 

 open hand of cheery welcome lead him through the gates of 

 hell. Now, I ask you, why should he not enter ? All other 



