182 THE CRUISE OF THE " CAOHALOT." 



them, and away they went in the wind's eye, it blowing 

 a stiffish breeze at the time. It was from the first 

 evidently a hopeless task to chase them, but we per- 

 severed until recalled to the ship, dead beat with 

 fatigue. I was not sorry, for my recent adventure 

 seemed to have made quite a coward of me, so much 

 so that an unpleasant gnawing at the pit of my stomach 

 as we neared them almost made me sick. I earnestly 

 hoped that so inconvenient a feeling would speedily 

 leave me, or I should be but a poor creature in a boat. 



In passing, I would like to refer to the wonderful 

 way in which these whales realize at a great distance, 

 if the slightest sound be made, the presence of danger. 

 I do not use the word "hear," because so abnormally 

 small are their organs of hearing, the external opening 

 being quite difficult to find, that I do not believe they 

 can hear at all well. But I firmly believe they possess 

 another sense by means of which they are able to 

 detect any unusual vibration of the waves of either air 

 or sea at a far greater distance than it would be possible 

 for them to hear. Whatever this power may be which 

 they possess, all whalemen are well acquainted with 

 their exercise of it, and always take most elaborate 

 precautions to render their approach to a whale 

 noiseless. 



Our extraordinary want of success at last so annoyed 

 the skipper that he determined to quit the ground and 

 go north. The near approach of the open season in 

 those regions probably hastened his decision, but I 

 learned from Goliath that he had always been known 

 as a most fortunate man among the "bowheads," as 

 the great Mysticetse of that part of the Arctic seas 

 are called by the Americans. Not that there is any 



