484 
MAKVELLOUS RISE AND FALL OF TIDES. 
the forests as one could desire. A boat’s crew of his, he 
said, had once attacked and wounded one of them, when 
he gave chase, and not only ran them into their boat 
but sw'am out into the bay after them. They then turned 
on him with their lances and harpoons, and made short 
work of him. 
Another captain told us the most marvellous yarns 
about the rise and fall of the tides along these shores, 
and of the shoals of whale which had frequented these 
bavs “ last season.” He said — and others confirmed the 
stoiy — that he had struck whales in six fathoms water, 
and dug clams out of the sand directly under his boat 
two hours later. And yet we passed three or four days 
in those waters, and did not see a clam, a Avhale, a bear, 
or any thing remarkable in the rise and fall of the tides. 
The currents that ran through the passages that separate 
the islands, however, were of astonishing rapidity, ren- 
dering the navigation full of peril even for a steamer. 
When we let go our anchor in the Bay of Fekilzoft', we 
found several wdialers already there, busily engaged in 
the work of wooding and watering ship. They com- 
plained greatly of the scarcity of whales, and talked of 
going to the northward in search of them. One by one 
they left us until we were alone in the silent bay. 
Upon the morning after our arrival, two boats had been 
detailed to sound out the harbour, while the others were 
employed in wooding and watering ship. This left our 
indefatigable Nimrod, tlic doctor, at liberty, and he was 
soon upon the hill-sides with his rifle ; but, after walking 
all day and finding nothing but two squirrels, he returned 
on board in great disgust and with a very poor idea of 
