

DEC. ‘21, 1907. ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

oil clothes, and every once in a while the crest 
of a wave would pile aboard and a good share 
of it would get down your coat collar, so as to 
fill your rubber boots—if you had any on. 
During all this time there was no hot food 
to be had, for the galley was smashed open, 
and the pots and kettles sent to play tag in the 
lee scuppers about the first thing, and the cook 
had taken refuge in his bunk below. 
It was wonderful to see the scud fly. There 
was such an incessant sheet of it that it made 
the very rain salt before it reached us, and 
after dark lumps of phosphorus danced along 
the surface, so that they looked like large fire- 
flies. I never saw it out of the water before, 
but Coleridge speaks of the “elfish light” that 
“fell in hoary flakes.” I have great respect for 
his knowledge of the sea. 
July 12—This afternoon an evidence of the 
storm’s force presented itself in the form of a 
splendid coasting schooner, wrecked, and the 
sight of it made us rather proud of our own 
little vessel that came out nearly unscathed. 
The crew were all right. A steamer sighted 
them before us and had already passed a hawser 
and started ahead to tow, but we put down a 
boat nevertheless, and went alongside and found 
that she was the Theoline, of Boston. As we 
ranged up to her our captain inquired rather 
needlessly, “You have had a pretty rough time, 
Captain?” 
“By gorry, yes. 
in July.” 
“Did you cut away or did they blow out (the 
masts)?” our captain asked. 
“When she got nearly full, I cut away,’ 
the reply. 
After a few remarks of a similar nature, we 
asked to be reported well with the exception 
of a stove boat, and shoved off. It was clear 
by the looks of their faces that they were glad 
to have the steamer hooked onto them with the 
probability of a safe harbor soon. I was in 
the same situation as theirs about twelve years 
ago. 
Sunday, July 14—The ocean seems to have 
been turned into a pleasure ground. for she is 
in her loveliest mood. This morning we have 
some New York papers only a week old, from 
a steamer, and the company of two other 
whalers; one a large bark that has been out 
three years and has been on the coast of Japan 
and is now on the way home from around the 
Horn with 2,000 barrels; the other is a small 
schooner like our own, but pretty nearly full. 
The whalemen are gamming each other, and 
we have the mates of the other vessels on 
board to dine at our table. Their talk is rather 
interesting to me and at the same time a little 
tiresome, for they can discuss nothing but shop, 
how many times they have been above, weather, 
| what so-and-so thinks of a certain boat-steerer 
. Or some person, or matter of that sort, nothing 
but grease. 
The newspapers have made me feel rather 
oddly. In town, how careless we are of the 
precious sheets that we are led to half despise, 
because they are so easy to get—even thrust 
into our faces. But their true nature should 
be appreciated at all times, since they are the 
ties that bind us in a civilized felicity, though 
at times we forget it. 
When I first got hold of the paper, it seemed 
to thrill me, and I did not know what part to 
look at first, for I wanted to read it all at once 
I never saw the beat of this 
? was 

THE TRY 
and Icok at the pictures at the same time. 
July 23.—The Puritanical instinct that makes 
remorseful of past 
am 
some of us so. strangely 
somewhat lacking in me, I 
happy to say, the 
journal from the last time to this doesn’t dis- 
turb me much. Our life has been monotonous 
and without any event worth particular men- 
tion, except a run into Norfolk, Va., for letters 
last week, but it didn’t do me much good, for 
on account of a misunderstanding I did not 
know of the move in time to let anybody at 
home know about it, but a good many of the 
remissness is 
and therefore gap in my 
crew were made happy by a voice from friends 
and I glad them. Our 
anchorage was. right Fortress 
Monroe, and the smell of the land, the sight of 
people and a short walk to the post office— 
which revealed in me an unsteadiness of gait— 
filled me with thoughts that made me wish that 
we hadn’t done it. It seemed like the tasting 
of an unfermented wine, and that the proper 
thing was to wait for a draught of the nectar 
that was meant for us. 
I have heard of men that were so attached to 
the ship after a long voyage that they hated to 
and family, was for 
alongside 
leave, and actually sat there while they 
smoked a long pipe of tobacco in mournful 
silence, long after less thoughtful shipmates 

WORKS, 
were off on a frolic. I seemed to understand 
that and how it could be. 
We are having favorable weather for whaling 
and the chance for raising a school to-day was 
good, but the search was fruitless, though our 
luck must change soon, according to the law 
OLwlicks: 
July 24.—We have just killed two whales and 
every thing is in a hustle. The day’s sport was 
rather interesting, and I ean tell you more 
about it later. 
Aug. 5.—When I hurriedly made the last 
idea of the run of grease 
had, cut in 
entry, it was with no 
that we subsequently for we have 
six whales. 
In the tussle of the 24th we got a crack from 
the flukes that the badly, so 
that two of us had to bail constantly to keep 
afloat. while the rest did the killing. It was 
lucky that the beast didn’t smash in the whole 
Twenty-six hours passed this 
made boat leak 
side of the boat. 
{ime before any of us had a wink of sleep, and 
And then another 
hard work no 
rest, except meals that 
we snatched up in-the day time. Not a cup 
of coffee or anything of the sort to stimulate 
one through the long night of cutting blubber. 
The next day had to work twenty 
then had four hours. 
whole twenty-four hours’ 
the very 
we 
and 
three hasty 
we only 

