THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 137 



the balsa wood placed on the shores of the stormy, change- 

 able Atlantic, men would be tempted to perilous enterprise 

 and frequent destruction. In place of this, the oak, the 

 locust, and the pine are provided for the seas of Europe and 

 America; the iron-like teak to endure the buffeting of the 

 cyclones and typhoons of the Indian Ocean ; the worm-proof 

 mahogany for the heated seas of the West Indies, where 

 marine worms will riddle a ship's bottom in a few months ; 

 the buoyant, leather-like birch bark for the shallow rapids 

 of our Northern rivers ; and the tubular bamboo, the antipa- 

 thy of the crocodile, for the travel over the deep rivers of 

 India. 



We also met a vast shoal of crabs, several miles in breadth, 

 moving to the northward ; the water seemed alive with these 

 active swimmers, and the entire surface was bright with the 

 tints of their shells. They seemed to be on passage, and 

 were exceedingly beautiful as the dense mass rippled through 

 the calm waters. 



Short-handed as we were, we took a whale on this pas- 

 sage, the only noteworthy incident being that the game 

 was so close inshore that one might almost look for sound- 

 ings; yet the water was blue, and must have been deep. 

 We also saw great numbers of finbacks and humpbacks. 

 The latter is a bone whale, but the bone is short and of little 

 value; it affords considerable quantities of an inferior oil, 

 however, and is pursued from shore fisheries, as it is liable 

 to sink after death. In the bays or shoal coasts the dead 

 whale is anchored and buoyed, so that it may be recovered 

 on rising, which it does in a day or two, when the gases 

 expand the body and give it the necessary buoyancy. We 

 fell in with great numbers of black-fish, and spent several 

 days in chasing them, finding much sport in their capture. 

 These small whales are from sixteen to twenty-four feet in 

 length, and furnish sometimes from three to five barrels of 



