emain on this sand-bank, for dreary and
uninhabited though it was, they preferred to take their chance of being
picked up by a passing ship rather than run the risks of crossing the
wide ocean in open boats, so their companions bade them a sorrowful
farewell, and left them. But this island is far out of the usual track
of ships. The poor fellows have never since been heard of.

It was the 27th of December when the three boats left the sand-bank with
the remainder of the men, and began a voyage of two thousand miles,
towards the island of Juan Fernandez. The mate's boat was picked up,
about three months after, by the ship _Indian_ of London, with only
three living men in it. About the same time the captain's boat was
discovered, by the _Dauphin_ of Nantucket, with only two men living; and
these unhappy beings had only sustained life by feeding on the flesh of
their dead comrades. The third boat must have been lost, for it was
never heard of; and out of the whole crew of twenty men, only five
returned home to tell their eventful story.

Before resuming the thread of my narrative, I must not omit to mention,
that in the head of the sperm whale there is a large cavity or hole
called the "case," which contains pure oil that does not require to be
melted, but can be bailed at once into casks and stowed away. This is
the valuable spermaceti from which the finest candles are made. One
whale will sometimes yield fifteen barrels of spermaceti oil from the
"case" of its head. A large fish will produce from eighty to a
hundred-barrels of oil altogether, sometimes much more; and when
whalemen converse with each other, about the size of whales, they speak
of "eighty-barrel fish," and so on.

Although I have written much about the fighting powers of the sperm
whale, it must not be supposed that whales are by nature fond of
fighting. On the contrary, the "right" whale is a timid creature, and
never shows fight, except in defence of its young. And the sperm whale
generally takes to flight when pursued. In fact, most of the accidents
that happen to whalemen occur when the wounded monster is lashing the
water in blind terror and agony.

The whale has three bitter enemies, much smaller, but much bolder than
himself, and of these he is terribly afraid. They are the swordfish,
the thrasher, and the killer. The first of these, the swordfish, has a
strong straight horn or sword projecting from his snout, with which he
boldly a