18C WHALING AND FISHING 



put them up. With the breeze came in a very 

 disagreeable chop sea, which made pulling straight 

 to windward except for short distances, almost 

 impossible. Et was therefore necessary to beat to 

 windward under sail, and thus try to head off the 

 whales. In this we did jiot succeed nor was any 

 one of the boats that day so fortunate as t* f&i 

 within dart of a whale. 



The rain ceased at about eleven o'clock, A. M., 

 and the sea-breeze, clear and bracing, soon dried 

 our bodies and our clothes, so that by the time we 

 returned on board, at four o'clock, no change of 

 dress was necessary. After our return, we took 

 a short run on shore, killing within fifteen min- 

 utes after landing, three serpents, each over eleven 

 feet long. They lay at the edge of the woods, 

 coiled up neatly, and apparently stupefied. They 

 made no resistance, but displayed the usual snake- 

 'ike tenacity of life. 



Supper at five and bed at six, finished one of 

 the most disagreeable and unsatisfactory days we 

 had passed on the voyage. 



Meantime the officers held a council, and ar- 

 ranged the programme for the morrow, which 

 differed, however, in nothing from that of the day 

 past, but that we should go closer in shore, as 

 it was there the cow whales would most probably 

 bo found with their young. Ordera were at the 

 same time given, not to fasten to a bull whale 

 until the sea-breeze set in, when, as the fortunes 

 of the day would by that time be pretty well 



