FORKED LOANDESTREAM. 


he cut up at a great rate, being twice as active 
as any that we had caught. As soon as he felt 
the iron, up went his flukes and he lashed the 
water so that it looked like a geyser and a good 
deal more picturesque, I imagine, though I have 
never seen one. Then he pulled ahead some 
and breached clear into the air and kicked and 
snapped his jaws. But his struggles were not 
for long, for the boat pulled up on him in his 
first quiet moment and a lance thrust or so 
ended him. 
We had meanwhile gone on a skirmish of 
our own, but the whales had all taken a fright 
and we returned to help the others tow their 
prize home. We had not tasted a mouthful 
before lowering, and as it was dinner time be- 
fore we had time to break our fast, you can 
judge that we were quite exhausted, and all in 
a blazing sun, too. I had a terrific headache 
in the afternoon, due to the exposure under 
such conditions, and I had to go below for a 
spell, for I was almost crazy. I find that small 
whales are not so bad to handle, for this one 
has not interfered much with our usual routine 
of hours on deck and below, and to-night the 
boiling will be all done. 
Sunday, June 23.—A strong wind and a very 
heavy swell yesterday afternoon, just 
about as the “boiling” was being finished up, 
and it was fortunate that the dirty work was 
so near through, for we would have had an in- 
teresting time of it. As it was, some of us 
came near getting maimed or killed, for some 
of the foremast gear that we were replacing, 
after being hoisted up to clear it from the 
smoke of the try-works, broke from its guys 
because of the excessive rolling of the ship, 
and went swinging around among us, cutting 
up high jinks. 
The second mate got a rap alongside of the 
head, and Chico a blow on the chest that sent 
him flat on the deck. Both of these men are 
blacks, and they displayed but little fortitude, 
for they sat down and cried like children, 
That is not the stern stuff that Saxon character 
is made of. 
Our friend, the Pearl. Nelson, hove in sight 
yesterday afternoon, too; and to-day her cap- 
tain is aboard of our vessel to spend the day 
set in 

























































“ 

with Captain Dunham. The sea has moderated, 
so we are not rolling our sails under as we did 
last night, and we are all slicked up, ready for 
another whale. 
June 24.—This is a perfect evening, and the 
whole ship breathes contentment. The men are 
lounging around an accordion that breathes 
sweet music for them, and the officers are 
grouped near the main mast, talking over past 
adventures. It is strange to me that these men 
can find nothing to talk of but their rovings. 


SAILING UP TO A WHALE, 
But they are all glad to hear the same yarns 
spun over and over again. 
The Nelson left us last night, and I went in 
the dory to help put the captain back aboard. 
I am reading bits of Endymion as I get a 
chance, and I am charmed by Keats’ lofty 
idealism, for every thought of his seems to be 
on a very high plane. I have just come across 
a description of a beach wave, and I like it. 
“as when heaved anew 
Old ccean rolls a lengthened wave to the shore, 
Down whose green back the short-lived foam, all hoar, 
Bursts gradual, with a wayward indolence.” 
June 25.—There was a distribution of the 
teeth of our first victim this evening, and the 
crew were all tickled to get them, for it was 
i 
TCs 
—S> —e = P 
+ OSS 
LITERALLY SKIPPING FROM ONE SEA TO THE NEXT, 
quite unexpected. 
not have teeth large enough to bother with, so 
they were not saved.’ Even they are short com- 

The other three whales did | 






pared to the size of the beast, but as their only ) 
value is that of a memento of the hunt, that is 
of not such importance. 
July 2—It is quite a while since I have even 
been able to look at my journal, for I have just 
emerged from the felicity of a wholesale blub- 
ber hunt. We killed a whale on the 25th, and 
started to cut him in, and we were well under 
way when whales were raised again, and so 
the old ship was plunging down to leeward 
in the midst of a school of porpoises who 
seemed to smell them, too, Porpoises follow 
whales pretty closely and are generally a sign 
of the presence of the big fellows, and late in 
the afternoon down went the boats and the 
chase began. 
After pulling for several miles, this way and 
that, we came up to a bunch of them and got 
an iron in, just one, and we signalled the other 
boat to come up and fasten too, for it was a 
big muscular brute, and he promised a good 
fight, which indeed he gave us. The situation 
was very picturesque, for just as he was 
churning up the water in the throes of death, the 
glowing embers of sunset seemed to pronounce 
a silent requiem over the king of the watery 
element. The sea was as smooth as a mill- 
pond, and in the twilight the ship’s form and 
sails stood out in sharp relief against the fading 
day. It was eight at night before the whale 
was safely chained by the flukes, and some of 
us turned in for three or four hours’ sleep, 
for the try works had to be kept agoing on 
the other blubber, 
Well, at 4 A. M, it was all hands start to cut 
in again, and just as we got through heaving, it 
was whales again—just after dinner. I was 
glad of that, and so was everybody else, for the 
work and exposure was beginning to pull on 
us, and a full stomach is none too good to go 
down in a boat with. They were close by, and 
a large school of them, too. There was just 
a breath of air stirring, so up went the sail and 
we paddled as noiselessly as aborigines upon 
our quarry. 
[TO BE CONTINUED. ] 












