334 NIMBOD OF THE SEA; OR, 



Other wounds from lances. At 7 a.m. lowered two boats to 

 renew the attack with bomb-lances ; fired thirty-one into him 

 before he yielded. He stowed down one hundred and fif- 

 teen barrels of oil, one-half of which was head matter." 



What a fearful disarrangement of internal economy must 

 have arisen from such a bombardment, remembering that 

 each bomb is driven deep into the creature's vitals and ex- 

 plodes nearly half a pound of powder and iron tubing ! Yet 

 I suppose none touched " the life," or the lungs would have 

 been suffused with blood, and suffocation ensued. Here we 

 have very strong evidence that it is only by touching one 

 vital point that the monstrous power of the whale is speedi- 

 ly overcome. 



Jan. 6. It must be an ingenious man of a strongly invent- 

 ive mind who can keep an interesting daily journal of a 

 passage in the trade-winds. Four bells succeed eight bells ; 

 watch relieves watch ; mast-head divides our duties with the 

 helm; no whales are seen; no fighting occurs; and a man 

 must go into the " head " to swear, if a fit comes on irresist^ 

 ibly. The grub is regular, the water unstinted, and we have 

 had a steady north - west course since our trouble. Some 

 days since a noble finback whale exhibited himself in per- 

 fect safety to those who were so anxiously seeking his dis- 

 tant relative, the spermaceti. The finback ran parallel with 

 our course for a considerable period, and often rose to spout 

 within one hundred feet of the ship. I improved the oppor- 

 tunity to go aloft and observe the movements of the huge but 

 graceful swimmer. We were making fully ten knots; yet 

 he kept beside us with little effort, and rose and sank lei- 

 surely, with a slow, regular sweep of his vast propeller. We 

 estimated his length at ninety feet. It is asserted that two 

 whales of this species have been measured — one, one hun- 

 dred and five feet long ; and Sir A. de Capell Brooks states 

 that a finback is occasionally seen one hundred and twenty 



