162 WHALING AND FISHING. 



In times past, when they were not so continually 

 worried and followed, they were much easier 

 *o approach, although often giving battle wl en 

 attacked. K'ow, however, the utmost care if 

 required to " get on " as it is termed. The slightest 

 noise causes them to disappear with marvelous 

 celerity. 



Though so vast and apparently unwieldy, the 

 motions of a sperm whale are sometimes almost 

 inconceivably quick. 



We had left the Mozambique Channel, and 

 slowly sailed down the eastern coast of Madagas- 

 car, toward the Isles of Bourbon and Mauritius. 

 It was on a beautiful calm Sunday morning, that the 

 masthead-man raised a large sperm whale, about 

 three miles off. An hour's close watching con- 

 vinced the officers that he was feeding, and was 

 entirely unsuspicious of our presence. At the end 

 of that time he turned flukes, and we lowered, 

 and pulled up to what we thought the most 

 advantageous spots to await his rising. A nice 

 little breeze had by this time sprung up, and we 

 set our boat sail, determining to sail on to the 

 whale, should he come up near us. 



The whale remained beneath the surface nearly 

 an hour, an evidence that he was a large fish. We 

 had begun to think he was gone off, when he 

 spouted about quarter of a mile from us, and ir 

 such a position that our boat, which was immedi- 

 ately ahead of him, was the only one that conic' 



