365 
THE WHITE WHALE 
The F orty-barr el-bull schools are larger than the harem schools. 
Like a mob of young collegians, they are full of fight, fun, and wicked- 
ness, tumbling round the world at such a reckless, rollicking rate, that 
no prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a 
riotous lad at Yale or Harvard. They soon relinquish this turbulence 
though, and when about three-fourths grown, break up, and separately 
go about in quest of settlements, that is, harems. 
Another point of difference between the male and female schools 
is still more characteristic of the sexes. Say you strike a Forty-barrel- 
bull, poor devil ! all his comrades quit him. But strike a member of 
the harem school, and her companions swim around her with every 
token of concern, sometimes lingering so near her and so long, as them- 
selves to fall a prey. 
CHAPTEE LXXXVIII 
FAST-FISH AND LOOSE-FISH 
The allusion to the waif and waif-poles in the last chapter but one, 
necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale fish- 
ery, of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge. 
It frequently happens that when several ships are cruising in com- 
pany, a whale may be struck by one vessel, then escape, and be finally 
killed and captured by another vessel; and herein are indirectly com- 
prised many minor contingencies, all partaking of this one grand 
feature. For example, — after a weary and perilous chase and capture 
of a whale, the body may get loose from the ship by reason of a violent 
storm ; and drifting far away to leeward, be retaken by a second whaler, 
who, in a calm, snugly tows it alongside, without risk of life or line. 
Thus the most vexatious and violent disputes would often arise between 
the fishermen, were there not some written or unwritten, universal, un- 
disputed law applicable to all cases. 
Perhaps the only formal whaling code authorised by legislative en- 
actment was that of Holland. It was decreed by the States-General 
in a. d. 1695. But though no other nation has ever had any written 
whaling law, yet the American fishermen have been their own legislators 
