76 TEE CliVISE OF THE "CACHALOT." 



creature hung on high, apparently motionless, and then 

 fell — a hundred tons of solid flesh — back into the sea. On 

 either side of that mountainous mass the waters rose in 

 shining towers of snowy foam, which fell in their turn, 

 whirling and eddying around us as we tossed and fell 

 like a chip in a whirlpool. Blinded by tho flying spray, 

 baling for very life to free the boat from the water with 

 which she was nearly full, it was some minutes before I 

 was able to decide whether we were still uninjured or not. 

 Then I saw, at a little distance, the whale lying quietly. 

 As I looked he spouted, and the vapour was red with 

 his blood. " Starn all ! " again cried our chief, and we 

 retreated to a considerable distance. The old warrior's 

 practised eye had detected the coming climax of our 

 efforts, the dying agony or " flurry " of the great 

 mammal. Turning upon his side, he began to move in 

 a circular direction, slowly at first, then faster and 

 faster, until he was rushing round at tremendous speed, 

 his great head raised quite out of water at times, clashing 

 his enormous jaws. Torrents of blood poured from his 

 spout-hole, accompanied by hoarse beilowings, as of some 

 gigantic bull, but really caused by the labouring breath 

 trying to pass through the clogged air passages. The 

 utmost caution and rapidity of manipulation of the boat 

 was necessary to avoid his maddened rush, but this 

 gigantic energy was short-lived. In a few minutes he 

 subsided slowly in death, his mighty body reclined on 

 one side, the fin uppermost waving limply as he rolled 

 to the swell, while the small waves broke gently over 

 the carcass in a low, monotonous surf, intensifying the 

 profound silence that had succeeded the tumult of our 

 conflict with the late monarch of the deep. Hardly had 

 the flurry ceased, when we hauled up alongside of our 



