62 TEE CBUISE OF THE "CACHALOT:' 



came across. But I will not go into that now. Lean- 

 ing over the rail, with the great rorqual laying per- 

 fectly still a few feet below, I was told to mark how 

 slender and elegant were his proportions. " Clipper- 

 built," my Mentor termed him. He was full seventy feet 

 long, but his greatest diameter would not reach ten feet. 

 His snout was long and pointed, while both top and 

 bottom of his head were nearly fiat. When he came up 

 to breathe, which he did out of the top of his head, he 

 showed us that, instead of teeth, he had a narrow fringe 

 of baleen (whalebone) all around his upper jaws, although 

 " I kaint see whyfor, kase he lib on all sort er fish, s'long's 

 dey ain't too big. I serpose w'en he kaint get nary fish 

 he do de same ez de ' bowhead ' — go er siftin eout dem 

 little tings we calls whale-feed wiv dat ar 'rangement he 

 carry in his mouf." " But why don't we harpoon him ? " 

 I asked. Goliath turned on me a pitying look, as he 

 replied, " Sonny, ef yew wuz ter go en stick iron inter 

 dat ar fish, yew'd fink de hole bottom fell eout kerblunk. 

 W'en I uz young 'n foolish, a finback range 'longside me 

 one day, off de Seychelles. I just done gone miss' a spam 

 whale, and I was kiender mad, — muss ha' bin. Wall, I 

 let him hab it blam 'tween de ribs. If I lib ten tousan 

 year, ain't gwine ter fergit dat ar. Wa'nt no time ter 

 spit, tell ye ; eberybody hang ober de side ob de boat. 

 Wiz — poof! — de line all gone. Clar to glory, I neber see 

 it go. Ef it hab ketch anywhar, nobody eber see u» too. 

 Fus, I fought I jump ober de side — neber face de skipper 

 any mo'. But he uz er good ole man, en he only say, 

 ' Don't be sech blame jackass any more.' En I don't." 

 From which lucid narration I gathered that the finback 

 had himself to thank for his immunity from pursuit. 

 •"Sides," persisted Goliath," wa' yew gwine do wiv' him ? 



