THE WHITE WORLD 



and bone. The whales were of very large size ; one that we 

 captured stewing down three hundred and sixty-five bar- 

 rels, and furnishing over three thousand pounds of bone. 

 We captured over three thousand barrels of oil with its 

 proportion of whalebone, and had all sorts of experiences 

 with Eskimo, bears, seals, fishes and birds, on water and 

 on land. We had fine weather, ran no special risks, and 

 enjoyed ourselves heartily; but all the 

 same, I should not select that region 

 for a steady summer resort. 



I was a party to a bathing adven- 

 ture, the recital of which may be inter- 

 esting. We had lowered all four 

 boats in pursuit of three whales which 

 were circulating near the ship. My 

 boat inopportunely got in the way of a 

 bull whale and he " spanked " the boat 

 into smithereens with his huge tail. 

 Tom Cole and myself, each with an 

 oar in hand, went over the port gun- 

 whale into the sea, while the rest of the 

 crew went off on the other side, and, 

 fortunately, were quickly rescued by 

 the other boats. Poor Tom and I 

 were within the charmed circle, made 

 by the three whales, for they were 

 swimming around in a ring, into which 

 not one of the boats dared to go, lest 

 it should be " spanked." We were 

 both good swimmers; besides we had 

 two oars to support us, so we had 

 no fear of drowning. The crews of 

 the three boats were far more exer- 

 cised for our safety than we were. 

 We supposed the whales would soon 

 get tired of their ring work and move 

 off, or have a fight, or do something 

 to release us from our watery prison — 

 but no, they kept it up, never mind- 

 'there she blows" ing us a bit. 



364 



