240 THE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT." 



once, working all night. We who had been rescued, 

 however, were summarily ordered below by the skipper, 

 and forbidden, on pain of his severe displeasure, to re- 

 appear until the following morning. This great privilege 

 we gladly availed ourselves of, awaking at daylight 

 quite well and fit, not a bit the worse for our queer 

 experience of the previous day. 



The whale proved a great acquisition, for although 

 not nearly so large as many we had caught, he was so 

 amazingly rich in blubber that he actually yielded 

 twelve and a half tuns of oil, in spite of the heavy toll 

 taken of him by the hungry multitudes of sharks. In 

 addition to the oil, we were fortunate enough to secure 

 a lump of ambergris, dislodged perhaps by the explosion 

 of my bomb in the animal's bowels. It was nearly 

 black, wax-like to the touch, and weighed seven pounds 

 and a half. At the current price, it would be worth 

 about £200, so that, taken altogether, the whale very 

 nearly approached in value the largest one we had yet 

 caught. 1 had almost omitted to state that incorporated 

 with the substance of the ambergris were several of the 

 horny cuttle-fish beaks, which, incapable of being 

 digested, had become in some manner part of this 

 peculiar product. 



