THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 241 
materials during nest-building time, and even the 
eggs from each other, if they are left unguarded. 
They are usually thought, when seen at sea, to 
indicate that land is at no great distance; but this 
indication is not always correct, for they-are occa- 
sionally seen very far from any shore, and, indeed, 
with their swimming powers, one can readily imagine 
that the space of a few leagues would be no object 
of concern, The Crested Penguin, in particular, 
lives in open sea; it has been seen some hundreds 
of miles from land, voyaging in pairs, male and 
female. : 
The chief object of commercial speculation in the 
Pacific is the pursuit of the Sperm Whale, than 
which the whole wide range of human enterprise 
affords no occupation of more daring adventure, or 
more romantic interest. A crew of thirty or forty 
hardy fellows leave their native land, and boldly 
steer away to the most distant parts of the globe. 
The tempestuous sea of Cape Horn soon finds them 
hotly engaged in striking their giant game; or, if 
they find it not here, they do not hesitate to stretch 
away to the shores of New Zealand, or even to 
seek the leviathan of the deep five thousand miles 
farther, in the distant seas of China and Japan. 
Now they are braving the horrors of the Antarctic 
sea, threading an intricate and perilous course 
through fields and bergs of floating ice, “under the 
frozen serpent of the south;” anon they are upon 
the equator, toiling with undaunted spirit beneath 
the rays of a vertical sun. The bleak and barren 
rocks of the Horn, tenanted by Penguins, are for- 
16 x 
