Chap. XI. WHALE SIGNALLED— THE CHASE. fK^ 
character which nature teaches them to pity rather 
than to despise. 
The preliminary orgies are nearly over ; the clerk 
stops the advances until something has been earned ; 
the headsmen administer a severe personal castigation 
to some few notorious characters who grumble at 
this curtailment of their ease; the boats are prac- 
tised every day in pulling and sailing ; when at length, 
one morning early in JMay, a whale is signalled from a 
hill near the bay, where a look-out is constantly kept. 
Three or four boats are quickly launched, and leave 
the ways at a racing-pace ; the boats of the rival sta- 
tions are seen gathering towards the same point ; and 
the occasional spout of the whale, looking like a small 
column of smoke on the horizon, indicates the direc- 
tion to be taken. A great deal of stratagem and ge- 
neralship is now shown by the different headsmen in 
their manceuvres to be first " alongside." The whale 
may probably go for two or three miles in one direc- 
tion, and then, after the various speed of the boats has 
placed them in a long file, tailing one after the other, 
suddenly reverse the position by appearing close to the 
last boat. The six and seven oared boats have greatly 
the advantage while the chase continues in a straight 
line ; but the short, old-fashioned five has the best of 
it if the fish makes many turns and doubles. It is 
very common for some of the boats to dog the motions 
of that of a rival party commanded by a headsman of 
known experience ; and thus two boats may some- 
times be seen starting suddenly in a direction to- 
tally opposed to that taken by the others, and a race 
shortly begins between these two, the rest having no 
chance. The "old file" in one of these two has 
guessed from some circumstance in the tide, wind, or 
weather, or from some symptom noticed in the last 
