OFF TO lEE JAPAN GROUNDS. 157 



Bounded clearly in the still air ; but if ever a small body 

 of soul-hardened men/eZi the power of God, it was then. 

 At the words, "We therefore commit his body to the 

 deep," I paused, and, the mate making a sign, two of 

 the harpooners tilted the hatch, from which the remains 

 slid off into the unknown depths with a dull splash. 

 Several of the dead man's compatriots covered their 

 faces, and murmured prayers for the repose of his soul, 

 while the tears trickled through their horny fingers. But 

 matters soon resumed their normal course ; the tension 

 over, back came the strings of life into position again, 

 to play the same old tunes and discords once more. 



The captured whale made an addition to our cargo 

 of one hundred and ten barrels — a very fair haul indeed. 

 The harpooners were disposed to regard this capture as 

 auspicious upon opening the North Pacific, where, in 

 spite of the time we had spent, and the fair luck we 

 had experienced in the Indian Ocean, we expected to 

 make the chief portion of our cargo. 



Our next cruising-ground is known to whalemen as the 

 " Coast of Japan " ground, and has certainly proved in 

 the past the most prolific fishery of sperm whales in the 

 whole world. I am inclined now to believe that there are 

 more and larger cachalots to be found in the Southern 

 Hemisphere, between the parallels of 33° and 50° South ; 

 but there the drawback of heavy weather and moun- 

 tainous seas severely handicaps the fishermen. 



It is somewhat of a misnomer to call the Coast of 



Japan ground by that name, since to be successful you 



should not sight Japan at all, but keep out of range of 



the cold current that sweeps right across the Pacific, 



skirting the Philippines, along the coasts of the Japanese 



islands as far as the Kuriles, and then returns to the 

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