His CAPTORS. 93 



Breaking Water. The Chase. The Dart. 



the chase. "Now we rested, with our oars 

 apeak," says a sailor, narrating an actual scene 

 like this, "for the whales, who had gone down, 

 to break water again. Presently they were 

 up and blowing all around, and very much scat- 

 tered, being alarmed by the boats, so that it 

 was impossible to get near enough for a dart. 

 But at one time five of the monsters rose close 

 to our boats. The mate motioned us all to be 

 silent, when we could have fastened to one, and 

 the only reason, as we supposed, why he did 

 not, was because he was so frightened. 



"The whale now ran to the southward, and 

 every boat was in chase as fast as we could 

 spring to our oars. The first mate's boat was 

 headmost in the chase, ours next, and the cap- 

 tain's about half a mile astern. The foremost 

 now came up with and fastened to a large 

 whale. We were soon on the battle ground, 

 and saw him struggling to free himself from 

 the barbed harpoon, which had gone deep into 

 his huge carcass. We pulled upon the mon- 

 ster, and our boat-steerer darted another har- 

 poon into him. " Stern all !" shouted the mate. 

 " Stern all, for your lives !" We steered out 

 of the reach of danger, and peaked our oars. 



