the instant all discipline was lost in a great 

 curiosity as I grabbed the wheel from the 

 grizzled old fisherman, while he and Noel 

 tugged at the main-sheet, and the skipper 

 jumped for the jibs, and the cook ran for 

 the skipper's glass, and the little Wild Duck 

 whirled up to the wind and went poking her 

 jib-boom at the soapy lather where the whale 

 had disappeared. 



Now a whale is so big that puny men may 

 be pardoned the supposition that he has no 

 ordinary feelings. All the way up the West 

 Coast and through the Straits, where we had 

 struggled against tide and gale and fog and 

 ice and the deadly monotony of cramped 

 limbs and close quarters, my friend had 

 amused himself by shooting bullets at the 

 whales that crossed our course, as one would 

 chuck peas at an elephant. Since we could 

 rarely get near enough to study the huge 

 creatures it was fun to stir them up, and 

 watch the sea " seethe like a pot " when 

 they went down in a hurry. A repeating 

 rifle was usually standing by the foremast, 



