144 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



rocks Formigas we aim at lie between San Miguel and 

 Santa Maria to the south-east. But the wind now blows 

 hard and the sea runs too high, so we turn and pound back 

 to patrol the north side of San Miguel, where we will get a 

 little slant of shelter from the land. 



As the wind is westerly we cannot help recalling what we 

 call " our wreck " the B enido, on the rocks of the break- 

 water, for a south-westerly wind is just what is needed to 

 pound her into scrap iron ; whereas she might have been 

 floating to-day in port if she had accepted our polite offer 

 of a tow. 



A turtle is all we have seen this morning, and we have 

 been looking out hard one man in the crow's nest on the 

 foremast, and two on the bridge, and the writer in main 

 rigging. The turtle was a browny yellow patch near the 

 surface of the deep blue sea. We turned back to try and 

 harpoon it, but it had gone down. 



Though there is little life to see in ocean to-day it is 

 pleasant enough sitting up in the shrouds watching the 

 horizon, or sometimes casting an eye down to see St Ebba 

 dip her bows under, and the burst of white spray that have 

 made us again put covers over our three guns. The move- 

 ment, sitting on the shrouds as we buck into the short sea, 

 is rather like a side-saddle canter on a beamy carriage horse. 



Before sundown, the wind keeping hard, we close in with 

 the land, getting into smoother water. As we go some small 

 whales appear, about fifteen or twenty feet long, and keep 

 under our bows, and nearly give us a chance of putting in a 

 small harpoon. They were whitish on back, with under side 

 dark, marked along the sides with criss-cross pattern, as if 

 slashes of a knife had been made through the dark skin. 



There is a South Atlantic whale with its back marked in 

 somewhat similar manner. I have seen a few in the Weddell 

 Sea, amongst the Antarctic ice. Ziphius novce Zealandicce, 

 possibly this is the same, which would give a wide distribution. 



I think this is as elaborate an impression as I dare to make 

 without drawing on what I think it might be like, or faking, 

 to use the artist's term. But they kept so much under 

 water, and only came to the top for such a rapid breathing- 



