THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 109 



Ah me ! Silly thoughts these for a rough being keeping 

 lone watch on an ash -heap of nature's laboratory. Next 

 my mind turned to mischief. The spirit of the solitude 

 invited me, and then came the desire and the resolve to see 

 more of the interior than was usually penetrated in the ter- 

 rapin hunt; and I returned to bed at the relief of my 

 watch, determined to play lost next day. 



In due course came the dawn, and with it an ample break- 

 fast on the warmed-over remnants of supper. Eight hours' 

 sound sleep had exhausted all we ate last night, and had 

 cleaned out our lockers for the stowage of more unknown 

 quantities. Old Lisha, the boat-steerer, advised a " proper 

 chinking between the solid menavellines with the mushy 

 lobscouse, to prevent shift of cargo in the rolling country we 

 were to hunt over." He claimed there was much judgment 

 necessary to stow " grub," so as to carry it well in a rough 

 sea, " as Jack discovered in," he added, " his voyage from 

 Groton Hill to Stonipgton on a kicking horse. The heels and 

 tafErail of the infernal craft were in the air overhead all the 

 time, and the brute pitched bow under at every jump. It 

 was awful goin', and the more Jack dug the craft amidships 

 with his heels the more it wouldn't sail on an even keel. 

 So Jack hauled up at a road-side inn, and ordered two bush- 

 els of oats, saying, ' Look here, hostler ; mind you stow that 

 grub well aft, as he sails too much by the head to steer 

 well.' " 



Our seal-hunters had returned in the night with the hide 

 of a sea-lion. This we cut into moccasins, and laced on our 

 feet to a neat fit, the fine hair inward, forming a perfect 

 shield against the cutting edges of the rocks. 



Charley Lings wished with me to push for the interior 

 and find the enchanted castle that might be there, and our 

 desires were forwarded, when word came that we should re- 

 main on shore another night. We secured a boat, hatchet. 



