INCIDENTS AT SEA. 
7 
otherwise ? The atmospliere was pure and balmy, 
the sea bright and rippling, the sky flecked with 
fleecy clouds, and the temperature as genial as could 
be desired. 
During the voyage many events took place 
which, though trivial in themselves, assumed an air 
of importance to the “ outward bound, ’ and con- 
tributed to render our long voyage less tedious and 
monotonous. One day we spoke a ship and sent 
letters to our friends at home ; the next, perhaps, w^e 
fell in with a barnacle-covered fragment of wreck — 
the sad memento, doubtless, of some tale of suffer- 
ing and disaster. Haply some sailor on the bow- 
sprit, expert in the use of the graines,” which is 
a kind of harpoon, kept handy for this especial 
purpose, impaled occasionally a dolphin or bonito. 
A huge whale spouting in the distance, the vapour 
from his blow-holes curling over his head, was 
an object of intense regard; but the appearance 
of a school of “ black-fish '' was hailed with even 
greater interest. On came these monsters of the 
deep, dark dusky forms leaping, and rolling, and 
