








—S—S—S— 








Dec. 7, 1907.] FOREST AND=S-FREAM: 891 
h 
d ae 
| aa 
| a 
d : 
—————— 
i er ee 
¢ “ ee 
ae Z \ 
2 AA 4 Y/ YY \ \n8 
NS T/O44 | ) 4, oa AE 
, ‘ Pes or Ee Wm Hy Im SIL hom Musil 
Aw AZ ae gg age UN t raat Cae —— 
h BRS = SS eS eke A LL Ld 
(aie ——— 

p, CAPTAIN DUNHAM’S BOAT RETURNING TO THE PEARL NELSON. 
“What for you want to. do dat?” he asked 
‘with some surprise. I told him that I thought 
lt was the hoodoo that was keeping the whales 
‘from us, whereupon he assured me with the ut- 
“most confidence in my credulity that he was on a 
ship once where they had two accordeons, a 
jew’s harp, harmonica, banjo and a violin, and 
hey cut down five hundred barrels of oil in 
" chree months and a half, and found twenty-five 
pounds of ambergris. Ambergris stocks about 
‘3500 a pound. ; 
| May 25.—I saw a rainbow this afternoon in 
‘he fog that formed a complete circle. I never 
paw such a thing before, and it looked very 
jpretty. Some spleen that has been generating 
jumong the sailors terminated in a forecastle 
fight this morning, The participants were forth- 
with summoned before the captain at the mast 
‘0 explain. Each looked as though he had the 
lworst of it, but the one who started the row 
aad to cool off his ardor at the foremast head. 
lit was very amusing, for the one that got licked 
yrad made some loud boasts of a fight that was 
yzoing to come off at eight in the morning. If 
je had kept his word instead of pitching in at 
prali-past six he would not have spent so much 
a ime aloft and had some breakfast to boot. An 
f yecurrence like this is’ like a safety valve and 
izives the men a new topic for thought. 
| Sunday, May 26.—The rain is pouring down in 
psreat sheets and some of us. enjoyed a sailor’s 
i uxury—lots of good water to wash with. It is 
_un to get out in your bare feet and oilskins and 
stamp around in a tubful of clothes and not 
gipoke at them as we generally have to with as 
little water as possible except when it is salt. 
‘Salt water is nasty stuff and it never seems to 
ity: Everybody is good natured on wash days, 
ind it matters not if they happen to come on 
gj unday. Our pig is becoming quite obstreperous 
i ind he vociferously demanded to be let out of 
4) 21S pen last night when he thought that he was 
put in teo soon. He had his own way about it 
00. 


I am reading Shakespeare’s sonnets and they 
are giving me a better idea of the man and his 
work. 
The captain of the Nelson came on board for 
tea and a “gam.” 
May 27.—We are having a gale of wind with 
a heavy sea and rain. It is by no means of a 
dangerous nature, but savors some of several 
“old timers’ that I have experienced. I saw 
some cannibalistic petrels flying around and 
pouncing down on one that was disabled in the 
water. If he was dying they had made up their 
mind to help him pass out. I have seen cases 
parallel to this in human nature which makes 
me think sometimes that we differ from the 
lower animals only in degree. 
May 28.—The weather has given us a respite 
at last and the sunset this evening was most 
perfect, a glassy sea, a sky without a cloud, and 
a golden fiery orb that cast forth tints that ran 
into the most beautiful purples along the horizon. 
Some swordfish came about us to-day, and 
we chased a big fellow around with a whale 
boat, but it was so clumsy that the fish cheated 
us. We all feel that a bit of fresh food would 
be toothsome and I must confess to a sort of 
savage, hungry instinct as we got almost close 
enough to use the harpoon. But we had no 
swordfish steak for dinner. 
I spent part of my watch below mending my 
clothes. I rather like it, and I can boast of 
considerable skill with the needle due to long 
practice, so that an otherwise light colored pair 
of trousers displays two large black patches that 
are invisible when I am face to. 
May 29—A large hawk flew within twenty 
yards of me when I was up aloft, and I won- 
dered what he was looking for. 
They catch small fish I know, but I never 
saw one at sea before. 
May 31.—We got in the midst of a large herd 
of sperm whales to-day, but they had been gal- 
lied for some reason or other, and we could not 



ee 
get near enough to fasten, though we lowered 
twice. My, but some of them were big, and they 
were as thick and wild as a school of porpoises. 
Some of them would breach clear of the water in 
a sportive way, and once in a while one would 
stick his great square snout out of the water, 
quite close to us and we would ply our paddles 
with all the energy that we could muster up to 
get in a position to meet him when he came 
up again, but it was no use, for they were wary 
and were no doubt “on to” us. We chased them 
for miles as they circled around, first to wind- 
ward, and then to leeward for about half a day, 
but it was no use, and the ship recalled the 
boats, so we pulled on board. 
A heavy squall accompanied by a smart sea 
made it rather interesting work to get the boats 
alongside. 
June 1.—Not a whale showed up to-day, and 
the conditions for a hunt were perfect too, but 
I am glad that we had yesterday’s experience, 
for it has put all‘ hands in a hopeful mood. 
Sunday, June 2.—I 
nomenon this morning. 
saw an interesting phe- 
The sky was perfectly 
clear except for a rather dense atmosphere near 
the horizon, and I was watching a full moon set 
in a chaste quietness as its coloring was set off 
by the blue of the mist. I was marveling at the 
beauty of such a morning, when it occurred to 
me to look at the streaks in the east, when the 
that 
instant the moon just touched the edge of the 
sun stood there, a red and fiery ball. At 
water. I am seeing lots of new things this trip. 
I can understand how the Greeks could 
Phoebus and his steeds of fire coming out of 
the sea in pursuit of Diana. Their effects are 
sO opposite, one coursing through the sky with 
a splendid aggressiveness and the other retreat- 
ing in modest beauty. 
This has been a perfect summer’s day, wind- 
less and the sea without a flaw, and everybody 
lay around the deck having a good time, doing 
nothing. 
see 
[TO BE CONTINUED. | 

