THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 385 



attract the sculptor's attention, and a countenance to arrest 

 the eye of a woman, he modestly told me this story of a 

 prolonged struggle for life with an enraged whale. As I 

 regarded him, with the battle-fire lighting up his pleasant, 

 beautiful eye, and as I measured his brawny figure, it seem- 

 ed to me that he was just the man to plunge into a battle 

 with the leviathan. In such contests he was mainly a vic- 

 tor ; but he carries scars, and the snow-white hairs of pre- 

 mature age, to tell of the unequal conflict. 



We had been conversing on his experiences with the vi- 

 cious sperm-whale, and I asked him whether the right whale 

 ever manifested the same fighting propensities. He replied 

 that he had met with one remarkable instance iii his own 

 experience, and continued : 



"My second mate had fastened to a large whale that 

 seemed disposed to be ugly ; so I pulled up and fastened to 

 her also. I went into the bow and darted my lance ; but the 

 whale rolled, so that I missed the life and struck into the 

 shoulder-blade. It pierced so deep into the bone (perhaps 

 through it) that I could not draw it out ; the whole body of 

 the whale shivered and squirmed, as though in great pain. 

 Then, turning a little, she cut her flukes, taking the boat 

 amidships. The broadside was stove in, and the boat rolled 

 over, the crew having jumped into the sea. I cut the line in 

 the chocks at the same moment, to save being run under with 

 a kink. The crew 'were soon safely housed on the bottom 

 of the upturned boat, or swimming and clinging to the keel. 

 The second mate wanted to cut his line and pick us up, but 

 I foolishly told him to hold on and kill the whale ; that we 

 were doing quite as well as could be expected. But I had 

 bragged too soon. Juslb then the whale came up on the full 

 breach, and striking the boat, she went right through it, 

 knocking men and wreck high in the air. Next the great 

 bulk fell over sideways, like a small avalanche, right in our 



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