244 
Wild Life in Southern Seas . 
evidently not injured by his impact. In a few 
moments he rose to the surface about a cable 
length away, and then, for the second time, 
came at the ship, swimming well up out of the 
water, and apparently meaning to strike her 
fairly amidships on the port side. This time, 
however, he failed, for the third mate’s boat, 
which had had to cut adrift from a whale to 
which it had fastened, was between him and the 
ship, and the officer in charge, as the whale 
swept by, fired a bomb into him, which killed 
him almost at once. Only for this he would 
certainly have crashed into the brig and sunk 
her. 
Another well-known instance was that of the 
ship Essex , Captain George Pollard, which was 
cruising in the South Seas in May, 1820, and 
which is related as follows : “ The boats had 
been lowered in pursuit of a large school of 
sperm whales, and the ship was attending them 
to windward. The captain and second mate 
had both got fast to whales in the midst of the 
school, and the first mate had returned on board 
to equip a spare boat in lieu of his own, which 
had been stove in and rendered unserviceable. 
While the crew were thus occupied, the look- 
