THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 177 



The head rises and falls, and the flukes strike, the surface in 

 rapid succession. With great force it will rapidly swim in 

 a large circle, sometimes passing two or three times around, 

 and then closing the circuit by rolling on its side, dead. 

 This is termed the " flurry," and the ending of the tragedy 

 is "fin out." We never witnessed the death of a sperm- 

 whale that was not immediately preceded by. the "flurry," 

 and such, I believe, is the general experience of whalemen. 



I have a mass of additional testimony about the prolonged 

 submergence of whales. The offshore ground of the Pacific 

 is of limited extent, and during the season is often crowded 

 with ships, not unfrequently two, three, or four being seen 

 in a single day. This affords opportunity for the frequent 

 comparison of notes. Now it is a noticeable fact that at 

 certain periods, say at the full of the moon, whales abound 

 all over the ground, and many are then taken. This busy 

 season will be followed by a period of two weeks or more 

 during which no whales are visible over the entire ground. 

 Ships will be spoken from all points of the compass, and to 

 the question, " Have you seen whales ?" the answer will be, 

 " Not for a week or ten days." The busy and dull seasons 

 for whaling prevail uniformly over the entire feeding-ground, 

 comprising an area of about six hundred miles north and 

 south, by about nine hundred miles east and west. From 

 his long experience in the " offshore " fishery, Captain West 

 declares his belief that the sperm-whale can stay under water 

 for two weeks. Captain Covill, while not agreeing to this 

 theory, admits that off French Rock, New Zealand, the great 

 bull whales appear as though they might have been reposing 

 on muddy bottom. So stained and rough are they that they 

 seem almost mossy; and not unfrequently the lower jaw 

 will be fringed with the tubular barnacle, such as is found 

 attached to floating timber at sea. He has seen at least a 

 peck measure of these shell-fish fringing the jaw of an old 



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