-the wind was light, with a cloudless sky, and the whale
was dead to leeward of us. We sped along at a good rate towards our
prospective victim, who was, in his leisurely enjoyment of life, calmly
lolling on the surface, occasionally lifting his enormous tail out of
water and letting it fall flat upon the surface with a boom audible for
miles.

We were, as usual, first boat; but, much to the mate's annoyance, when
we were a short half-mile from the whale our main-sheet parted. It
became immediately necessary to roll the sail up, lest its flapping
should alarm the watchful monster, and this delayed us sufficiently to
allow the other boats to shoot ahead of us. Thus the second mate got
fast some seconds before we arrived on the scene, seeing which, we
furled sail, unshipped the mast, and went in on him with the oars only.
At first the proceedings were quite of the usual character, our chief
wielding his lance in most brilliant fashion, while not being fast to
the animal allowed us much greater freedom in our evolutions; but that
fatal habit of the mate's--of allowing his boat to take care of herself
so long as he was getting in some good home-thrusts--once more asserted
itself. Although the whale was exceedingly vigorous, churning the sea
into yeasty foam over an enormous area, there we wallowed close to him,
right in the middle of the turmoil, actually courting disaster.

He had just settled down for a moment, when, glancing over the gunwale,
I saw his tail, like a vast shadow, sweeping away from us towards the
second mate, who was lying off the other side of him. Before I had time
to think, the mighty mass of gristle leaped into the sunshine, curved
back from us like a huge bow. Then with a roar it came at us, released
from its tension of Heaven knows how many tons. Full on the broadside it
struck us, sending every soul but me flying out of the wreckage as if
fired from catapults. I did not go because my foot was jammed somehow in
the well of the boat, but the wrench nearly pulled my thighbone out of
its socket. I had hardly released my foot when, towering above me, came
the colossal head of the great creature, as he ploughed through the
bundle of _debris_ that had just been a boat. There was an appalling
roar of water in my ears, and darkness that might be felt all around.
Yet, in the midst of it all, one thought predominated as clearly as if I
had been turning it over in my mind in the quiet of my bunk
aboard--"What