94 TEE CRUISE OF TEE "CACEALOT.*' 



pigeons, and Cape hens, but never in my life had I 

 imagined such a concourse of them as now gathered 

 around us. When we lowered there might have been 

 perhaps a couple of dozen birds in sight, but no sooner 

 was the whale dead than from out of the great void 

 around they began to drift towards us. Before we had 

 got him fast alongside, the numbers of that feathered 

 host were incalculable. They surrounded us until the 

 sea surface was like a plain of snow, and their discordant 

 cries were deafening. With the exception of one peculiar- 

 looking bird, which has received from whalemen the in- 

 elegant name of " stinker," none of them attempted to 

 alight upon the body of the dead monster. This bird, 

 however, somewhat like a small albatross, but of dirty- 

 grey colour, and with a peculiar excrescence on his beak, 

 boldly took his precarious place upon the carcass, and 

 at once began to dig into the blubber. He did not seem 

 to make much impression, but he certainly tried hard. 



It was dark before we got our prize secured by the 

 fluke-chain, so that we could not commence operations 

 before morning. That night it blew hard, and we got an 

 idea of the strain these vessels are sometimes subjected 

 to. Sometimes the ship rolled one way and the whale 

 another, being divided by a big sea, the wrench at the 

 fluke-chain, as the two masses fell apart down different 

 hollows, making the vessel quiver from truck to keelson 

 as if she was being torn asunder. Then we would come 

 together again with a crash and a shock that almost 

 threw everybody out of their bunks. Many an earnest 

 prayer did I breathe that the chain would prove staunch, 

 for what sort of a job it would be to go after that whale 

 during the night, should he break loose, I could only 

 faintly imagine. But all our gear was of the very best ; 



