THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 347 



with them, experiences a stinging sensation resembling that 

 of nettles; hence the name. We are now standing to the 

 eastward on a passage, meeting the varying incidents of 

 storm and calm, which go to make up the journal of the 

 mariner who merely journeys over this waste of waters. 



DREAM-LIFE. 

 "The staghounds, weary with the chase, 



Lay stretched upon the rushy floor, 

 And urged in dreams the forest race 

 From Teviot stone to Eskdale moor." 



Were the visions of the night which inspired and refresh- 

 ed the soul of the weary sailor of no more significance than 

 the dreams which came to the soulless brute? The tedium 

 "of a long cruise, and the absence of incident in our waking 

 hours, seemed to incite the imagination to a greater activity 

 in our sleep. At times the dream-life was so connected, 

 that a question arose as to which was the reality the toil- 

 some, wearisome bondage by day, or the bright, happy free- 

 dom of the night. Dreaming of home became habitual, and 

 somewhat under control. When I closed my eyes in sleep 

 with the thought " I will go home," then the . spirit of 

 dreams set me gently in the walks of boyhood, and the 

 faces of friends welcomed me. But in all my dreams I was 

 with, or of, the ship, and ever conscious that I was dream- 

 ing. The old craft formed part of the phantoms of the 

 night. Once we anchored her in the shallow stream abreast 

 the old saw-mill in which J graduated as a mechanic; and 

 she rode securely moored in waters so. shallow that it might 

 be waded to grapple the suckers and mullet from under the 

 stones. And we happy fellows clustered like bees about 

 the well-remembered cider-press, to suck through straws the 

 luscious juice of new-pressed apples, a good father standing 

 by with welcoming face to bid us make the most of the 



