HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 181 



did under double-reefed foresail only. The barometer, 

 which stood at 29-80 at eight o'clock, had begun to fall 

 ominously. It was now evident that we were in for one of 

 those dreaded typhoons which, during late summer and 

 autumn, devastate these eastern seas. The air grew thick 

 with vapour, enveloping us like a fog, obscuring the sky 

 and everything but the white foaming water that shone out 

 of the black darkness of the night. With stores and water 

 nearly exhausted, we were very light, and our breadth of 

 beam and little hold of the water kept the decks compara- 

 tively dry as we danced like a cork upon the now raging 

 waters. But the spume and spindrift, caught up from 

 every wave-crest, flew over us with all the violence of a 

 tropical rain-storm. Every few minutes one of us would 

 have a look at the barometer, but only to find it still 

 falling. Before midnight the wind had increased so much 

 that we took another reef in the already double-reefed 

 foresail, which was all we dared carry. 



Before daylight had disappeared, we were no great 

 distance from the dreaded Whaleback a low, long rock, 

 almost awash, shaped, as its name implies, like a sleeping 

 whale, which lay on our port side off the Niphon shore, 

 upon which so many vessels had been wrecked. And, 

 judging by our drift and the direction of the wind, we 

 must be gradually nearing it. At the mercy of wind, wave, 

 and current, at any moment we might strike it or the 

 neighbouring shore. No boat could live in such a sea, so 

 we made no attempt to prepare them ; but we had a lower 

 mast lashed along the port rail. This, cut loose at the 

 right moment, might afford some small chance if it came to 

 the worst ; though how small that chance would be could be 

 seen by one glance at the seething waters. As is usual in 

 such cases, the crew were called aft, so that all chances 

 would be equal. Peril is a great leveller, and a man's 

 pedigree is seldom asked under such conditions. One 

 could scarcely help smiling at their appearance, for several 

 of the men, who had donned their long dressing-gown-like 



