REMARKS. 
195 
are not even aware that a South Sea voyage embraces so 
large an extent of the world as it really does, nor do 
they suppose that the southern whaler so often explores 
parts of the creation which Europeans have never before 
seen those portions of the globe which have been so 
seldom visited even by the most renowned travellers, 
are to the sperm whaler thrown entirely open. In 
search of his prey he leaves no sea untroubled ; those 
dangers which deter the merchantmen from approaching 
the unexplored shores which abound in the North and 
South Pacific oceans, are to him 6i trifles light as air.’* 
Even the intrepid character of our navy cannot be com- 
pared with that of the whaler, who, bred from his boy- 
hood in this arduous service, knows no fear among the 
dangerous coral shoals and sunken rocks with which the 
seas he so often traverses abound, and views without, 
dismay the billows breaking on the shores of lands 
unknown, and but too often inhabited by the barbarous 
savage. 
We trace him as the apprentice, the boatsteerer, and 
through the gradations of mates, before we see him 
entitled to the enviable berth of captain ; and then we 
perceive him of the middle age, weather-worn, and 
thoroughly acquainted with the knowledge requisite to 
take command of the ship which may be entrusted to 
his care. Ever watchful and wary when near land, his 
repose is of short duration ; at any sudden sound or un- 
usual occurrence he is instantly on deck, in the middle 
of the dark tempestuous night, and he sleeps not until 
his charge — the ship —is free from every danger. Amid 
