BIGHT WHALES. 
81 
the Straits to see what they were made of.” Some of 
these men have made nineteen or twenty voyages to 
these seas, and have had too much experience of the 
pursuit of the finners to make them enthusiasts in their 
pursuit. One of our men was employed on board a 
vessel engaged in the capture of this whale when all 
their fishing tackle was lost; several finners were struck 
and but one was ultimately secured, so that the outlay 
was greatly overbalanced by the losses incurred. The 
oil also, when compared with that of the right whale, 
is less in quantity, and inferior in quality; it is thin 
and greasy, while the true whale oil is, when recently 
collected, of a pale salmon colour and remarkably rich 
in quality. Towards evening the finners left us. 
On calm, clear days, while we waited for the appear¬ 
ance of the whale, we preserved the strictest silence, 
and as we waited and watched, he would glide on to 
the surface with a sudden but gentle motion, heaving 
a loud p-o-o-f as he came; and if on his way either 
in search of food or swimming in mere sport, we could 
see the peculiar inclination forwards which formed the 
first part of the curve in which the drive is made. 
The odour of a whale is most unpleasant, and he 
leaves a slimy track behind him, just such a track as 
some great black slug leaves when passing over the 
garden path in the early morning; we could alsa 
a 
