220 WHALING AN.D FISHING. 



the second mate at once pulled up and struck one 

 We made for another fish, but the school immedi. 

 ately disappeared, leaving the struck whale tc 

 fight his own battles. 



He however did not seem disposed to fignt. 

 The iron had been darted into one of his eyes, 

 and he was evidently in great agony. He did not 

 sound when struck, as is usual with sperm whales, 

 but after giving two or three violent strokes on 

 the water with his flukes, began rolling round 

 and round, until he had a large part of one tub- 

 full of the second mate's line wound about his 

 body. In his agony he would occasionally dart 

 wildly through the water, but in a short time re- 

 sumed his rolling again, seeming, I thought, to be 

 trying by this means to extract the dart. 



This rolling over of course gave a fair chance 

 for a lance to be aimed at his breast, and in fifteen 

 minutes after he was struck he was in his flurry, 

 throwing his ponderous body about with the swift- 

 ness and agility of a mackerel. 



When he was dead, and rolled over " fin out," 

 we had an instance of how surely a dead whale 

 will work to windward that is, will drift against 

 the force of both wind and sea. The vessel, by 

 brisk working, had been brought to windward of 

 our prize and hove to. While, however, the fluke 

 chain and its adjuncts were being prepared, she 

 drifted off again to leeward. It was to be ex- 

 pected that so un wieldly a body as a whale, lying 

 helpless upon the water, would have drifted off 



