WHALES IN THE HARBOUR. 
475 
that a school of whales was entering the harbour, and 
that the whale-ships were all lowering tlieir boats pre- 
paratory to commencing -wbrk. There were some seven 
of these ships, all Americans, each one being manned 
with not less than four boats; lienee the sport promised 
to be amusing, and the cry of 'whales in harbour!* no 
sooner reached us than all idea of leaving for the shore 
at once took wing. 
“ The entire party now rushed up from below, — up, 
up, — some into the rigging, some on the yards, others 
into the tops, — every one seeking an elevation from 
which to look down upon the coming contest between 
man and the giant of the deep, — between mind and 
instinct. 
"It was curious in the extreme to watcli the wary old 
bulls and cows as they drove the ^mung calves into shoal 
■water and there left them to feed, while they themselves, 
from the fact of drawing too much water, were forced to 
remain farther out, cruising back and forth, across and 
about the entrance, diving under ships, lying on tlie sur- 
face as if sunning themselves, motionless, apparently 
asleep, and yet sinking suddenly, like a lump of lead, 
dropping 'perpendicularly away from the sneaking boats, 
just as one of them would get close enough to make the 
harpooner brace himself for the deadly heave. Of calves 
I suppose there were a dozen or more, accompanied 
by an infinite number of grampus, amusing themselves 
in the shoal water; and there were probably as many as 
fifteen or twenty of tlie bulls and cows 'backing and 
filling’ in dififerent parts of the harbour, each of the former 
having one — sometimes two — boats dogging his wake 
