268 
SOUTH SEA 
From the beginning of June to about the middle of 
September we fell in with great numbers of large whales, 
which we saw sometimes every day for weeks, so that 
we were kept in constant excitement with chasing and 
capturing them ; for the details of which operations I 
beg to refer the reader to the account contained in the 
Chase and Capture of the Sperm Whale,” in the first 
part of this work, chapters xii. and xiii. 
About the middle of September we found the weather 
becoming tempestuous ; the whales also became very 
scarce, or seldom seen ; they appeared going off to the 
southward, no doubt in search of more abundant food ; 
for now the sea, which during the two former months 
had teemed with polypi, medusse, flying-fish, and squid, 
was getting quite deserted. They had, towards the latter 
end of September, nearly all disappeared ; and no doubt 
the squid, upon which the sperm whale feeds, had taken 
its departure also, for during the two previous months 
we frequently had seen detached portions of them floating 
on the surface, upon which the whales had been feeding, 
and which no doubt had escaped from their jaws ; but 
now nothing of the kind could be seen, and we there- 
fore prepared for our departure also, and, steering about 
south-west, on the 5th of October 1831, made the 
Bonins, which form a small group of islands not far 
from the coast of Japan, in the longitude of 141° 30" 
east, and in the latitude of 26° 30' north. They were, 
at the time of our visit, all uninhabited except North 
Island, upon which two or three Europeans and a few 
Sandwich Islanders were endeavouring to form a settle- 
