WHALING VOYAGE. 
359 
number of large sperm whales, indeed we had seen them 
almost every day. They appeared migrating, or going 
off in herds or “ schools ” to the southward. At this 
time we were only about three days sail from the islands 
which lie to the southward of the sea of Kamschatka, 
which is the longest passage a ship can possibly make 
from England ; and the reader will find, if a chart or 
map is consulted, that the distance which then existed 
between us and our native land was enormous. If the 
fact of whale fishermen wandering so far in search of 
their prey was not fully proved from various authentic 
records, would not Europeans in general deem the first 
narration of such journeyings, as an account too impro- 
bable for them to believe ? are works of romance beyond 
the apparent fiction of their doings in those distant 
regions ; where, trusting to their frail bark, they brave 
the Indian typhoon, sail along the shores of unfriendly 
and savage tribes, and at times carry off the rich pro- 
duce of their seas in sight of their very habitations ? 
On Monday the 6th of August 1832, at about three 
p.m., we again crossed the meridian of longitude, making 
ourselves 180 degrees of longitude distant from the 
pleasant town of Greenwich, finding our latitude also to 
be 38 Q 39' north of the equator. On the 14th, being 
in the longitude of 168° 37 30 ;/ west, and latitude 35° 
32' north, we fell in with the regular north-east trade 
winds. During this day we passed through large quan- 
tities of medusae, intermixed with great numbers of the 
ianthina fragilis, a purple shell which generally floats on 
the surface of the ocean, about the size of a walnut ; 
