74 THE CRUISE OF TEE "CACHALOT:' 



had just been favoured with was a very unusual one, I 

 was told, it being a rare thing for a cachalot to take out 

 two boats' lines before returning to the surface to spout. 

 Therefore, we separated as widely as was thought 

 necessary, in order to be near him on his arrival. It was, 

 as might be imagined, some time before we saw the light 

 of his countenance ; but when we did, we had no diffi- 

 culty in getting alongside of him again. My friend 

 Goliath, much to my delight, got there first, and suc- 

 ceeded in picking up the bight of the line. But having 

 done so, his chance of distinguishing himself was gone. 

 Hampered by the immense quantity of sunken line 

 which was attached to the whale, he could do nothing, 

 and soon received orders to cut the bight of the line and 

 pass the whale's end to us. He had hardly obeyed, with 

 a very bad grace, when the whale started off to wind- 

 ward with us at a tremendous rate. The other boats, 

 having no line, could do nothing to help, so away we 

 went alone, with barely a hundred fathoms of line, in 

 case he should take it into his head to sound again. 

 The speed at which he went made it appear as if a gale 

 of wind was blowing, and we flew along the sea surface, 

 leaping from crest to crest of the waves with an inces- 

 sant succession of cracks like pistol-shots. The flying 

 spray drenched us and prevented us from seeing him, 

 but I fully realized that it was nothing to what we 

 should have to put up with if the wind freshened much. 

 One hand was kept baling the water out which came so 

 freely over the bows, but all the rest hauled with all 

 their might upon the line, hoping to get a little closer 

 to the flying monster. Inch by inch we gained on 

 him, encouraged by the hoarse objurgations of the mate, 

 whose excitement was intense. After what seemed a 



