144 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



prey, the slap of some hungry sharks' tails, and the rattle of 

 the fluke-chain, naturally gave tone to the yarns of the even- ' 

 ing. Whale-feed was the immediate subject, when Ben put 

 in his oar : " Cephalopods be blowed ! Just hocus the ma- 

 rines with them Ciferen poddies!- I tell you, sparm-whales 

 feed on squid, and sometimes a blue shark is took in with 

 the crumbs." 



The bow-oarsman, myself, who had been talking, now con- 

 tinued : " With all respect for your extreme ugliness, my 

 beloved Benjamin, I reiterate that the right- whale feeds on 

 medusaB, and other minute forms of animal life; and the 

 spermaceti feeds on octopods, cephalopods, and onycholen- 

 thus, the meaning of the same, in the vernacular, being the 

 horrible polypus." 



"Why didn't you stick to wormicular from the jump, 

 and say polly pusses when you meant joo^y pusses?" growl- 

 ed the old sea-bear, as he lay comfortably propped against 

 the sleeping body of an old sow, which nightly served as a 

 pillow to some luxurious sleeper in the watch on deck. 



"If that lily-livered book- worm," Ben continued, "will 

 permit a remark from an old fellow that was twice wrecked 

 before he was kittened, I would venter to say that the yarns 

 ashore about scuttle-fishes, and uproriusses oxymuriaticusses 

 is all gammon and greens for the bringin' up of land-lubbers. 

 You can remark, fellers, how the same works on Bill there. 

 And they draw picters of 'em, too. Now that's ag'in natur', 

 as far as the great squid is concerned ; for I tell you, boys, 

 one and all, no mortal man ever set eyes on it and come back 

 to tell the story. The squid is the greatest mystery of the 

 deep water. We don't know any thing about it, only that 

 it lives, and that it nestles away deep, deep down about 

 the roots and foundations of continents. And the wise 

 Creator, before he launched the first sperm-whale, sheathed 

 him with thick blubber, and cushioned his brain-pan with 



