THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 254 
close to their sterns. The orders were instantly 
obeyed, for in a second of time both boat-steerers 
stood in the bows of their respective boats, with 
their harpoons held above their heads ready for the 
dart; but they both panted to be a few yards nearer 
to the Whale, to do so with success. The monster 
plunged through the main quickly, but the boats 
gained upon him every moment, when the agitation 
of all parties became intense, and a general cry of 
‘Dart! dart!’ broke from the hindermost boats, 
who each urged their friends, fearful of delay. The 
uproar became excessive, and while the tumult of 
voices, and the working and splashing of the oars, 
rolled along the surface of the deep, both the har- 
pooners darted their weapons together, which, if 
they had both struck the Whale, would have origin- 
ated a contention between them, regarding their 
claims. But, as it happened, neither of them had 
that good fortune; for, at the moment of their 
darting the harpoons, the Whale descended like a 
shot, and avoided their infliction, leaving nothing 
but a white and green-looking vortex in the disturbed 
blue Ocean, to mark the spot where his monstrous 
form so lately floated. A general huzza burst from 
the sternmost boats, when they saw the issue of this 
chase, thinking, now, that another chance awaited 
them on the next rising of the Whale, and they soon 
began to separate themselves a little, and to row 
onwards again in the course which they thought he 
had taken. Our captain, feeling irritated at the ill- 
success of the mate, now ordered his own boat to 
be lowered, intending to make one in the chase him- 
17 ¥2 
