WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 177 



only much oil, owing to the warmth of the water, but also the 

 use of the bodies of the whales. One of these drifted ashore 

 beneath Government House. It was very high, and we were 

 politely informed that that;was the limit ! 



So we applied to the Seychelle^Government for licences for 

 a large land station in order to utilise both the blubber and 

 the entire bodies of our whales. Licences were granted to 

 us and we purchased the land site for a station ; and now 

 we are running our little Company into a large affair, with 

 both British and Norwegian Directors and capital, and the 

 station is being prepared a complete land station, to work 

 with several whaling steamers ; capable of turning out, by 

 the latest processes and^ modern machinery, several hundred 



barrels of oil and bags of guano per day, the guano being 

 produced from the whale's bones and meat after all oil has 

 been extracted. 



Now I have come to a point in this relation of the history of 

 the St Ebba when I find myself in the position of a historical 

 painter who was decorating a building in New York with 

 a historical frieze of American history, and he stopped. 

 "Why," said his patrons, "do you stop?" "Why," he 

 replied, " because you haven't got any more history ! " So 

 our St Ebba's history must also stop in the meantime. 

 Possibly we may join her again and go on with our narration, 

 and paint blue seas and coral strands fringed with waving 

 palms, and hunt whales where there are never gales, and turn 

 turtle and catch bonita and tunny and so on. Meantime 

 we leave her at anchor in the Seychelles in charge of the 

 mate, engineers and two men, The mate writes that his crew 

 II 



