88 WHALING AND FISHING. 



porpoises came leaping over the waves, tvc 

 abreast. Unlike their usual course, which ib to 

 run counter to the direction of the wind, these 

 four were racing before the wind, in a direction 

 parallel to our own. Every moment they leaped 

 out of the water, each leap seeming as though they 

 were propelled from the mouth of a gun, so rapid 

 and direct was the motion. Every muscle of their 

 supple bodies was evidently strained to its utmost 

 tension, and their bright eyes were fairly standing 

 cyit from the sockets, while their short, cough-like 

 spouts, seemed like the panting of racers. Thus 

 they flew by us, overtaking and passing us as 

 though we had been lying at anchor. Their rate 

 as they passed, we supposed, must have been 

 nearly twenty-five miles per hour. 



A few days with such a breeze brought us to 

 our whaling ground, which was, so the mates 

 informed us, along the coast of Madagascar. 



"Madagascar," said one of our factory boys to 

 me one day, privately, as not feeling quite certain 

 that he was not exposing an unusual degree of 

 ignorance in asking the question, "that is the 

 place where the raisins are brought from ; is it not? 

 I never thought that was so far off. I think we'll 

 get some when we go ashore there." He had 

 evidently heard of Malaga, and failed to disi .;. 

 guish between the two names. 



It was finally determined that we should sail 

 up the Mozambique channel, in the hope of thtre 

 meeting with some schools which our captain 



