"He gave us a deal of trouble too," said I.

"Not so much as I've seen others give," said he. "When I was fishing in
the Greenland Seas we made fast to a whale that cost us I don't know how
many hundred dollars." (You must know the first mate was a Yankee, and
he reckoned everything in dollars.)

"How was that, sir?" asked I.

"Well, it was something in this fashion. We were floating about in the
North Atlantic one calm, hot day, just something like this, only it was
the afternoon, not the morning. We were doing nothing, and whistling
for a breeze, when, all of a sudden, up comes five or six whales all
round the ship, as if they had spied her from the bottom of the sea, and
had come up to have a squint at her. Of course the boats were manned at
once, and in less than no time we were tearing after them like all
alive. But them whales were pretty wildish, I guess. They kept us
pullin' the best part of five hours before we got a chance at them. My
boat was out of sight of the ship before we made fast to a regular
snorer, a hundred-barreller at the least. The moment he felt the iron,
away he went like the shot out of a gun; but he didn't keep it up long,
for soon after, another of our boats came up and made fast. Well, for
some two or three hours we held fast, but could not haul on to him to
use the lance, for the moment we came close up alongside of his tail he
peaked flukes and dived, then up again, and away as fast as ever. It
was about noon before we touched him again; but by that time two more
harpoons were made fast, and two other boats cast tow-lines aboard of
us, and were hauled along. That was four boats, and more than sixteen
hundred fathoms of line, besides four harpoons that was fast to that
whale, and yet, for all that, he went ahead as fast as we could have
rowed, takin' us along with him quite easy.

"A breeze having sprung up, our ship overhauled us in the course of the
afternoon, and towards evening we sent a line on board, to see if that
would stop the big fish, and the topsails were lowered, so as to throw
some of the ship's weight on him, but the irons drew out with the
strain. However, we determined to try it again. Another line was sent
aboard about eight o'clock, and the topsails were lowered, but the line
snapped immediately. Well, we held on to that whale the whole of that
night, and at four o'clock next morning, just thirty-six hours after he
was first struck, two fast lines we