THE WHITE WORLD 



with which those waters abound. The farther south we 

 penetrated, the worse these conditions became. Baffling 

 winds prevailed, followed by severe gales, fast and furious. 

 Sleet, snow, rain and hail came from all quarters of the 

 compass, and the sun scarcely deigned to show its face 

 for days at a time. The weather was penetratingly cold, 

 the sea confused, and we began to realize that no one could 

 tell just where we were. Dead reckoning was indeed a 

 broken reed to lean upon. Soundings were of no use, as 

 we had no charts upon which to plot our position. So far 

 as worry was concerned, my impression is, those in the 

 after end of the boat had the worst of it, as we in the fore- 

 castle were not responsible for the safety of the ship, nor 

 cognizant of the danger threatening it and our precious 

 lives. After we had been out from the land a month, per- 

 haps, we began to see whales, but they were the common, 

 useless, much-despised " sulphur bottoms," large in size, 

 and swift in their movements, but paying no attention to 

 our presence in their cruising grounds. Still, we steered 

 clear of them, lest at some time we might provoke them to 

 give us a slap with their ponderous flukes, which they 

 could wield with a tremendous power, sufficient to crush 

 our frail craft as if it were an egg-shell. It was tantalizing 

 to see anything of the species whale, and not be able to 

 lower away and secure it. Day after day passed with 

 these big fish tempting us, until at last our captain resolved 

 to attempt to kill one of the fellows. His boat was pre- 

 pared by putting in two extra tubs of whale line, making 

 four tubs in all, and with a picked boats' crew, the main 

 topsail was laid to the mast, and the boat lowered away. 

 All hands gathered at the starboard waist rail to see the 

 sport, for we knew that a "sulphur bottom" was just the 

 fish to furnish it. There was no trouble in approaching the 

 monster, which was at least one hundred and twenty-five 

 feet long and he lay almost motionless on the surface of the 

 water. 



The boat steerer stood up, and just as the boat got within 

 three or four fathoms of the whale, he drove both irons 

 chock-home in the fish. The whale quivered, and then giving 

 a start, threw up his flukes and took a header for the bottom 

 — if there was any bottom of the ocean at that spot. We had 



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