WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 171 



him twenty strokes of a bludgeon on the head in a smother 

 of foam alongside the boat, and pulled him over the side with 

 two huge gaffs and ropes, and then sat down exhausted. He 

 was about two-thirds of the length of the boat and must 

 have weighed well over three hundred pounds, and was 

 worth 3 at the market, to the two men and two boys 

 who got it. Lucky fellows ! They lifted the boat seats to 

 show it to us, and there it lay, a silver and blue torpedo- 

 shaped fish with huge deep shoulders. The natives call the 

 tunny albicore. We congratulated them and gazed at it, 

 and listened to their gasping description of the fight, how 

 it had sounded seven times and taken out a desperate 

 number of lines. Then other two boats lost one each that 



is, they got into fish that were too big for them, and made their 

 lines fast, and the fish broke away. Time was their con- 

 sideration; they prefer several smaller fish of, say, one or 

 two hundred pounds to a bigger one that may weigh five 

 hundred pounds but will take the whole day to play it. 



It got tiresome as the hours went by with never a soul 

 to speak to, for " 41 " and the interpreter were both still ill, 

 and the sun got very hot, so we decided that after midday 

 meal we would up stick and make sail. A flat hearth of 

 charred wood was laid amidships. Three small boulders 

 were laid on it and sticks between, and these were lit and a 

 great tin can of sea-water was set on the stones to boil, with 

 the fish, and sweet potatoes, in it, and a right hearty meal 

 we made, with fingers for knives, and the blue Atlantic for 



