228 THE WHALE AND 



The Game majestic. The Whaleman's Lot hard. 



the boat with lightning speed and with open 

 jaws, and it is crushed like an egg-shell in his 

 mouth. 



In this frightful warfare many are maimed, 

 and many lives are annually lost. But some 

 whales are worth between two and three thou- 

 sand dollars, and this is majestic game to hunt. 

 He, however, who earns his bread through the 

 perils and hardships of this pursuit, has truly a 

 hard lot in life. He is but a transient visitor 

 at his home. Amid the solitude of the ocean he 

 passes the greater portion of his days ; and if 

 he survives the perils of his adventurous pur- 

 suit, the storms of the ocean, and the pestilence 

 of different climes, he usually finds that the 

 friends of his youth are all gone, and that he is 

 almost a stranger at his own fireside. And yet 

 this mode of life has its own joys and emolu- 

 ments, for, if ordinarily successful, in the course 

 of fifteen or twenty years a whaleman will lay 

 up a moderate competence for the rest of his 

 days, and meanwhile, notwithstanding the un- 

 favorable influences which are often at work in 

 the whale ship, many are forming noble char- 

 acters. 



Although it is no genial soil, yet virtue, hu- 



