The Cruise of the Cachalot | Page 2

and no eyes" at sea--Of big mollusca--The origin of sea- serpent stories--Rediscovery of the "Kraken"--A conflict of monsters--"The insatiable nightmares of the sea"-- Spermaceti running to waste--The East Indian maze.
CHAPTER XIII
- OFF TO THE JAPAN GROUNDS A whale off Hong Kong--The skipper and his "'bomb-gun"-- Injury to the captain--Unwelcome visitors--The heathen Chinee--We get safe off--"Death of Portagee Jim"--The Funeral--The Coast of Japan--Port Lloyd--Meeting of whale-ships.
CHAPTER XIV
- LIBERTY DAY--AND AFTER Liberty day--I foregather with a "beach-comber"--A big fight --Goliath on the war-path--A court-martial--Wholesale flogging--a miserable crowd--Quite a fleet of whale-ships --I "raise" a sperm whale--Severe competition--An unfortunate stroke--The skipper distinguishes himself.
CHAPTER XV
- WHICH COMES UNCOMFORTABLY NEAR BEING THE LAST I come to grief--Emulating Jonah--Sharing a flurry--A long spell of sick-leave--The whale's "sixth sense"--Off to the Kuriles--Prepare for "bowhead" fishing--The Sea of Okhotsk--Abundant salmon--The "daintiness" of seamen.
CHAPTER XVI
- "BOWHEAD" FISHING Difference between whales--Popular ideas exploded--The gentle mysticetus--Very tame work--Fond of tongue--Goliath confides in me--An awful affair--Captain Slocum's death-- "Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds"--I am promoted.
CHAPTER XVII
- VISIT TO HONOLULU Towards Honolulu--Missionaries and their critics--The happy Kanaka--Honolulu--A pleasant holiday.
CHAPTER XVIII
- ON THE "LINE" GROUNDS I get my opportunity--A new harpooner--Feats under the skipper's eye--Two whales on one line--Compliments Heavy towage--A grand haul.
CHAPTER XIX
- EDGING SOUTHWARD Monotony--A school of blackfish--A boat ripped in half--A multitude of sharks--A curious backbone--Christmas Day-- A novel Christmas dinner--A find of ambergris.
CHAPTER XX
- "HUMPBACKING" AT VAU VAU "Gamming" again--a Whitechapel rover--arrive at Vau Vau --Valuable friends--a Sunday ashore--"Hollingside"-- The natives at church--Full-dress--Very "mishnally"-- Idyllic cruising--Wonderful mother-love--A mighty feast.
CHAPTER XXI
- PROGRESS OF THE "HUMPBACK" SEASON A fruitless chase--Placid times--a stirring adventure--a vast cave--Unforeseen company--A night of terror--We provide a feast for the sharks--the death of Abner--An impressive ceremony--an invitation to dinner--Kanaka cookery.
CHAPTER XXII
- FAREWELL TO VAU VAU Ignorance of the habits of whales--A terrific encounter-- VAE VICTIS--Rewarding our "flems"--We leave Van Vau--The Outward bounder--Sailors' "homes"--A night of horror-- Sudden death--Futuna.
CHAPTER XXIII
- AT FUTUNA, RECRUITING A fleet of nondescripts--"Tui Tongoa" otherwise Sam--Eager recruits--Devout Catholics--A visit to Sunday Island--A Crusoe family--Their eviction--Maori cabbage--Fine fishing --Away for New Zealand--Sight the "Three Kings"-- The Bay of Islands.
CHAPTER XXIV
- THE BAY OF ISLANDS AND NEW ZEALAND COAST Sleepy hollow--Wood and water--liberty day--A plea for the sailors' recreation--Our picnic--A a whiff of "May"--A delightful excursion--To the southward again--Wintry weather--Enter Foveaux Straits.
CHAPTER XXV
- ON THE SOLANDER GROUNDS Firstfruits of the Solander--An easy catch--Delights of the Solander--Port William--The old CHANCE--"Paddy Gilroy" --Barbarians from the East End--Barracouta-Fishing-- Wind-bound--An enormous school of cachalots--Misfortune-- A bursting whale--Back on the Solander again--Cutting-in at Port William--Studying anatomy--Badly battered Yankees --Paddy in luck again.
CHAPTER XXVI
- PADDY'S LATEST EXPLOIT We try Preservation Inlet--An astounding feat of Paddy Gilroy's.
CHAPTER XXVII
- PORT PEGASUS Port Pegasus--Among old acquaintances--"Mutton birds"-- Skilled auxiliaries--A gratifying catch--Leave port again --Back to the Solander--A grim escape--Our last whales --Into Port William again--Paddy's assistance--We part with our Kanakas--Sam's plans of conquest.
CHAPTER XXVIII
- TO THE BLUFF, AND HOME And last--In high-toned company--Another picnic--Depart from the Bluff--Hey for the Horn!--Among the icebergs-- "Scudding"--Favouring trades--A narrow escape from collision--Home at last.
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INTRODUCTION
Without attempting the ambitious task of presenting a comprehensive sketch of the origin, rise, and fall of whale- fishing as a whole, it seems necessary to give a brief outline of that portion of the subject bearing upon the theme of the present book before plunging into the first chapter.
This preliminary is the more needed for the reason alluded to in the Preface--the want of knowledge of the subject that is apparent everywhere. The Greenland whale fishery has been so popularized that most people know something about it; the sperm whale fishery still awaits its Scoresby and a like train of imitators and borrowers.
Cachalots, or sperm whales, must have been captured on the coasts of Europe in a desultory way from a very early date, by the incidental allusions to the prime products spermaceti and ambergris which are found in so many ancient writers, Shakespeare's reference--"The sovereign'st thing on earth was parmaceti for an inward bruise"--will be familiar to most people, as well as Milton's mention of the delicacies at Satan's feast--"Grisamber steamed"--not to carry quotation any further.
But in the year 1690 the brave and hardy fishermen of the north- east coasts of North America established that systematic pursuit of the cachalot which has thriven so wonderfully ever since, although it must be confessed that the last few years have witnessed a serious decline in this great branch of trade.
For many years the American colonists completely engrossed this branch of the whale fishery, contentedly leaving to Great Britain and the continental nations the monopoly of the northern or Arctic fisheries, while they cruised the stormy, if milder, seas around their own shores.
For the resultant products, their best customer was the mother country, and a lucrative commerce steadily grew up between the two countries. But when the march of events brought the unfortunate and wholly unnecessary War of