158 WHALING AND 1SHINQ. 



ship, tne entire absence of objects by the consid* 

 eration of which their minds would be kept in 

 a healthful state of excitement, the wearsome 

 monotony of their every day life- were enough to 

 crush any mind, however strong. I watched my . 

 self with alarm, lest I too should be getting into 

 that absent, awkward habit. And I determined 

 that at the first port I would take my leave of 

 whaling not conceiving that I was bound to 

 remain where I plainly saw that both mind and 

 body would wilt away. 



Those of the crew who could sleep the greatest 

 number of hours were, in these days, the happi- 

 est. And as in all things else, so in sleeping, 

 practice makes perfect : so that ere long some of 

 my worthy shipmates thought no harm of devo- 

 ting from thirteen to fifteen hours of the twenty- 

 four to the god Morpheus. 



Meantime, I took advantage of the seasons of idle- 

 ness, to gratify a desire, long entertained, to know 

 all that is generally known of the habits of whales. 

 Sitting upon the booby -hatch, whittling, I would 

 ask questions of the boatsteerers, until they some- 

 times declared me to be an arrant bore. The 

 mates, too, were pressed into my service, and 

 many a tough yarn, as well as many scraps of 

 curious information, I gathered as the result of 

 these random questionings. 



Sperm whales feed upon an animal know/s 

 among whalemen as "squid," but which is, I te- 

 lieve, a monster species of cuttle fish. These. 



