230 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT." 



he must have nearly torn his body in two halves, sever- 

 ing the spinal column completely. Yet such a wound as 

 that had been healed by natural process, the bone knit 

 together again with many times the strength it had 

 before — minus, of course, its flexibility — and I can testify 

 from the experience of securing him that he could not 

 possibly have been more vigorous than he was. 



A favourite practice used to be — I trust it is so no 

 longer — to catch a shark, and, after driving a sharpened 

 stake down through his upper jaw and out underneath the 

 lower one, so that its uj)per portion pointed diagonally 

 forward, to let him go again. The consequence of this 

 cruelty would be that the fish was unable to open hia 

 mouth, or go in any direction without immediately 

 coming to the surface. How long he might linger in 

 such torture, one can only guess ; but unless his fellows, 

 finding him thus helpless, came along and kindly devoured 

 him, no doubt he would exist in extreme agony for a 

 very long time. 



Two more small cows were all that rewarded our 

 search during the next fortnight, and we began to feel 

 serious doubts as to the success of our season upon the 

 line grounds, after all. Still, on the whole, our voyage 

 up to the present had not been what might fairly be 

 called unsuccessful, for we were not yet two years away 

 from New Bedford, while we had considerably more than 

 two thousand barrels of oil on board — more, in fact, than 

 two-thirds of a full cargo. But if a whale were caught 

 every other day for six months, and then a month elapsed 

 without any being seen, grumbling would be loud and 

 frequent, all the previous success being forgotten in the 

 present stagnation. Perhaps it is not so different in 

 other professions nearer home 2 



