nt through."

Some of my shipmates seemed to doubt the truth of this story; but, for
my part, I believed it, because the mate was a grave, truthful man,
though he was gruff, and never told lies, as far as I knew. Moreover,
a case of the same kind happened some years afterwards, to a messmate
of mine, while he was serving aboard the _Royal Bounty_, on the 28th of
May, 1817.

I know that some of the stories which I now tell must seem very wild
and unlikely to landsmen; but those who have been to the whale-fishery
will admit that I tell nothing but the truth, and if there are any of
my readers who are still doubtful, I would say, go and read the works
of Captain Scoresby. It is well known that this whaling captain was a
truly religious man, who gave up the fishing, though it turned him in
plenty of money, and became a minister of the gospel with a small
income, so it is not likely that he would have told what was untrue.
Well, in his works we find stories that are quite as remarkable as the
one I have just told, some of them more so.

For instance, he tells us of one whale, in the Greenland Seas, which
was not killed till it had drawn out ten thousand four hundred and
forty yards, or about _six miles_ of line, fastened to fifteen
harpoons, besides taking one of the boats entirely under water, which
boat was never seen again.

The mate told us two or three more stories, and a lot of us were
gathered round him, listening eagerly, for there is nothing Jack likes
so much as a _good yarn_, when all of a sudden, the man at the
mast-head sang out that a large sperm whale was spouting away two
points off the lee-bow. Of course we were at our posts in a moment.

"There she blows! there she breaches!" sung the look-out.

"Lower away!" roared the captain.

The boats were in the water, and the men on their seats in a moment.

The whale we were after was a very large one, we could see that, for
after two hours' hard pulling we got near enough to throw a harpoon,
and after it was fixed he jumped clean out of the water. Then there
was the usual battle. It was fierce and long; so long that I began to
fear we would have to return empty-handed to the ship. We put ten
harpoons into him, one after another, and had a stiff run between the
fixing of each.

It is astonishing the difference between the fish. One will give you
no trouble at all. I have often seen a good big fellow killed in half
an hour. Another will take you h