THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 155 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Sperm-whale as it appears to Whalemen. As a game Animal. Idle 

 Life on board, and Prizes for raising Whale. Pig Sacrifice. Whale- 

 man in the Boat. The Perfection of Whale-boat. Equipment of the 

 Whale-boat. Retrospection in Boat. 



I HAVE been showing the board spread for the entertain- 

 ment of the whale, and the master of the feast has not been 

 described, complains a reader. That has been done in books 

 innumerable, I answer. My business is rather with the ways 

 of the whale, as he shows himself to us whalemen in inci- 

 dents of the chase. I will not trouble myself with the anat- 

 omy of the whales or of the whalemen, but will show the 

 ways of both as they come to us in the voyage before us. 

 Forgetting mercenary considerations, one has but to look 

 at this huge mammal with a sportsman's instinct, and the 

 charm will be at once perceived which attracts the advent- 

 urous youth of New England to launch out on voyages 

 lasting a large part of a lifetime on distant seas, and to en- 

 counter the icy rigors of the Arctic and Antarctic, and the 

 burning heats of the tropics. If we regard the whale as a 

 game animal, and his capture as a field-spcfrt, then how regal 

 our pursuit becomes in all its appointments ! Our ship is 

 one of a royal fleet of costly ships, amply provided ; we are 

 a squad only of an army of precious lives ; we have flown 

 on the wings of the wind over twenty -four thousand miles 

 of this good world's surface, and have just fairly entered 

 on the hunt ; we have tracked to its haunts a game so huge 

 that flocks of land animals measure less than he. We have 

 means of attack and defense, in comparison with which 



