OUR FIRST CALLING-PLACE. 101 



under way or coming to an anchor was unattended by 

 any of the fuss and bother from which those important 

 evolutions ordinarily appear inseparable. 



To my great relief, we saw no more whales of the 

 kind we were after during our passage round the Cape. 

 The weather we were having was splendid for making 

 a passage, but to be dodging about among those immense 

 rollers, or towed athwart them by a wounded whale, in 

 80 small a craft as one of our whale-boats, did not have 

 any attractions for me. There was little doubt in any 

 of our miuds that, if whales were seen, ofif we must go 

 while daylight lasted, let the weather be what it might. 

 So when one morning I went to the wheel, to find the 

 course N.N.E. instead of E. by N., it may be taken for 

 granted that the change was a considerable relief to me. 

 It was now manifest that we were bound up into the 

 Indian Ocean, although of course I knew nothing of the 

 position of the districts where whales were to be looked 

 for. Gradually we crept northward, the weather im- 

 proving every day as we left the " roaring forties " astern. 

 "While thus making northing we had several fine catches 

 of porpoises, and saw many rorquals, but sperm whales 

 appeared to have left the locality. However, the " old 

 man " evidently knew what he was about, as we were not 

 now cruising, but making a direct passage for some 

 definite place. 



At last we sighted land, which, from the course which 

 we had been steering, might have been somewhere on 

 the east coast of Africa, but for the fact that it was right 

 ahead, while we were pointing at the time about N.N.W. 

 By-and-by I came to the conclusion that it must be the 

 southern extremity of Madagascar, Cape St. Mary, and, 

 by dint of the closest attention to every word I heard 



