THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 277 



And we leaned our arms on the rail, and wondered at the 

 tameness of our usually wild game. 



Strange inconsistency ! Consideration for the living would 

 not for an instant have restrained the captain ; probably not 

 to save the life of Beers would he have allowed the boats to 

 remain on the cranes with whales so near. He had been 

 habituated to risk his own and other lives almost daily, and 

 can and will thrust five souls, with himself at the head, into 

 the valley of the shadow. But when the divine spirit has 

 fled with the breath of life, leaving nothing but an unsightly 

 casket, he stands reverentially before it, almost afraid of the 

 slightest sound. At 8 A.M., lat. 1 13' S., long. 145 32' W., 

 we placed our shipmate in the blue water, the captain read- 

 ing the funeral service from the Episcopal ritual. As the 

 white canvas form passed from sight in a broad undulation 

 of light, his words of the night watch came to my mind : 

 " How lonely, so far from home and kindness !" Yet I know 

 that such thoughts do not now concern him. Assuredly he 

 is in better company than he left. 



We then braced forward ; the mast-heads were manned, 

 and a sharp lookout kept for the whales that tempted us in 

 the early morning ; but they were lost to us. 



Feb. 15. We stowed down the oil of the last four whales. 

 They made but sixty-five barrels, which brings the voyage 

 up to seven hundred and fifty barrels. We are evidently in 

 the region of small whales, and the herds of this sea are al- 

 most entirely composed of cow whales and their calves. We 

 have not seen a bull whale lately. Is it possible that we are 

 intruding on their lying-in hospital and nursery ? May it be 

 that it is among the Coral Islands of these seas that the 

 females retire to bring forth their young ? Captain Covill 

 thinks that the Philippine Islands are such a resort, as he 

 has there seen calves so young that their flukes seemed 

 scarcely unfolded. Thirty degrees east of this, or in long. 



