142 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



up-to-date French dresses, but you see very few townswomen, 

 they stay indoors, but many countrywomen come into the 

 town in the daytime and a group of them sitting with baskets 

 and fruit, with their vivid kerchiefs and 

 shawls, make a colour, light, and shade, 

 enough to make a painter's heart leap 

 with joy. 



We hunted round the east end of San 

 Miguel and saw dolphins and some very 

 small whales. 



Then we went north and chased some 

 small whales, one, the biggest, almost 

 white. It was getting late, the sun 

 setting behind the cloud-capped island, 

 still we stood by the guns skipper, first 

 mate and the writer each at his gun, 

 ready for a chance shot. These little 

 whales move too quickly out and into 

 the water to give a fair shot. 



The little excitement helped to raise our spirits from the 

 damping disappointment of the wreck. We now drift, and 

 expect the light wind to take us down to some shallower 

 soundings which we see on the chart several miles south and 

 east of San Miguel, where we hope to find whales ; for they 

 are in the habit of frequenting the edges of " banks," when 

 say two or three hundred fathoms change into a thousand 

 fathoms. 



The way of a man with a maid is perhaps a simple problem 

 compared to the ways of whales. Who can tell how they 

 guide their course, year after year, past the same points, 

 travelling, for instance, off the Shetlands always N.E. along, 

 you may say, a definite line. 



Our plan for next week or so is to beat up the seas north 

 of San Miguel, going about twelve miles, spying six miles 

 on either side, then taking a right-angle course for other 

 twelve or twenty-four miles, and so spying a large tract of 

 sea, and by this simple means we can keep our position 

 easily ; and we keep the ordinary four hours' watch ; later, 

 when we get whales, " if " I should say, we will have all 



