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CHAPTER XVI. 



" BOWHEAD " FISHINa. 



Day and night being now only distinguishable by the aid 

 of the clock, a constant look-out aloft was kept all through 

 the twenty-four hours, watch and watch, but whales 

 were apparently very scarce. We did a good deal of 

 " pelagic " sealing ; that is, catching seals swimming. 

 But the total number obtained was not great, for these 

 creatures are only gregarious when at their rocky haunts 

 during the breeding season, or among the ice just before 

 that season begins. Our sealing, therefore, was only a way 

 of passing the time in the absence of nobler game, to be 

 abandoned at once with whales in sight. 



It was on the ninth or tenth morning after our arrival 

 on the grounds that a bowhead was raised, and two boats 

 sent after him. It was my first sight of the great 

 Mysticetus, and I must confess to being much impressed 

 by his gigantic bulk. From the difference in shape, 

 he looked much larger than the largest sperm whale 

 we had yet seen, although we had come across some of 

 the very biggest specimens of cachalot. 



The contrast between the two animals is most marked, 

 so much so, in fact, that one would hardly credit them 

 with belonging to the same order. Popular ideas of the 



