A Great Slaying 1 99 



who would otherwise have no chance whatever to 

 obtain our flesh for food. 



• But when the slaying ceased, and the boats laden 

 almost to sinking with dead Albacore had returned 

 to harbour, our panic ceased also, and, closing up our 

 scattered ranks, we resumed our journey northward. 

 The great catch granted to the islanders at St. Helena 

 really seemed to have made no perceptible difference 

 to our numbers, which, it must be remembered, were 

 continually being added to by recruits from all sides. 

 So that when we reached Ascension, that lonely rock 

 in the middle of the wide Atlantic, whose shelving 

 sides beneath the sea swarm with all that an Albacore 

 need use, we were an army of great fishes swimming 

 in close order covering nearly a square mile, and in 

 many places ten fathoms deep. Our descent upon 

 Ascension must have caused an awful panic among 

 its submarine population, all of whom, with the excep- 

 tion of some vast cuttle-fish that inveigled a few of 

 our members, paid delicious tribute to us, satisfying 

 our hungry needs, as far as they ever are satisfied, in 

 a most enjoyable way. 



To say that we swept the rock bases bare would 

 be exaggeration, but we certainly did find on the 

 second day of our visit that the juicy morsels which 

 had been so plentiful were scarce and hard to come 

 by. So we simultaneously moved off without any word 

 of command, any leader, any directing impulse, save 

 the one unerring instinct. And how fully sufficient 

 it was ! Just after departing, however, we suffered 

 considerable diminution of our forces, a really notice- 

 able lessening of our vast numbers, compared to which 

 the slaying at St. Helena was not worth mention. 

 We encountered a vast school of sperm whales whose 

 mighty bodies lay end-on to our path, and all their 



