THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 239 



tliyir position a little, tliinking to do so with advan- 

 tage ; then they would cease rowing, and stand up 

 on the seats of the boats, and look all round over 

 the smooth surface of the Ocean with ardent gaze. 

 But one hour and ten minutes expired before the 

 monster of the deep thought proper to break cover ; 

 and when he did, then a rattling chase commenced 

 with the whole of the boats, and they really flew 

 along in fine style, some of them appearing to be 

 actually lifted quite on the surface of the water, from 

 the great power of the rowers ; and we had the 

 satisfaction of observing, that our boats were quite 

 equal to the others in the speed with which they 

 were propelled. But it was again a useless task, as 

 the AVhale had outwitted those in the boats, by 

 having gone, while under water, much further than 

 any of his pursuers had anticipated, and they again 

 had the mortification of witnessing the turning of 

 his flukes, as he once more descended into the depths 

 of his vast domaiiL AVe now knew to a minute the 

 time that he would remain below, while the people 

 in the boats continued to row slowly onwards the 

 whole time. A fine breeze now sprang up, so that 

 w^e were enabled to keep company with the boats, 

 keeping a little to windward of them, as the Whale 

 was going ' on a wind,' as a seaman would say, mean- 

 ing that it was blowing across liim. 



" "When the hour and ten minutes had again nearly 

 passed, the nine boats were nearly abreast of each 

 other, and not much separated, so that the success 

 of first striking the Whale depended very much 

 upon the swiftest boat, especially if the "Wliale came 



K 2 



