His CAPTORS. 129 



Nocturnal Heavens. A School of Sperm Whales. 



tropic ; the sky cloudless, the sun genially 

 warm, its place in the heavens away off to the 

 north of us, and the ocean nearly calm. The 

 short night, too, was one of surpassing splendor, 

 the whole southern hemisphere lit up with all 

 the glorious lamps, never seen by those who 

 dwell at the north, the Magellanic clouds, and 

 the sightly constellation of the southern cross, 

 and a brilliant though small comet visible in 

 the southwest, its tail pointing upward to the 

 zenith, and about twice as long as the belt of 

 Orion. 



In the afternoon a school of sperm whales 

 passed us, making for the Pacific with all the 

 speed of flukes and fins. They showed them- 

 selves a few minutes about a quarter of a mile 

 off, and three boats were soon lowered in pur- 

 suit ; but they never let us see them again, it 

 being the habit of the sperm whale to stay un- 

 der water much longer than the right whale. 

 Poor fellows ! they will find keen human ene- 

 mies enough where they were going, and not 

 unlikely the blubber sides of one or more of 

 them are already headed up in the hold of some 

 ship, and biding their time to fill honorable 

 lamps with light ten thousand miles off. 

 I 



