nd, we saw
the flukes of an enormous whale sweeping through the air not more than
six hundred yards astern of us.

"Down your helm," roared the captain; "haul up the mainsail, and square
the yards. Call all hands."

"All hands, ahoy!" roared Bill Blunt, in a voice of thunder, and in
another moment every man in the ship was on deck.

"Hoist and swing the boats," cried the captain. "Lower away."

Down went the boats into the water; the men were into their places
almost before you could wink, and we pulled away from the ship just as
the whale rose the second time, about half a mile away to leeward.

From the appearance of this whale we felt certain that it was one of the
largest we had yet seen, so we pulled after it with right good will. I
occupied my usual place in the captain's boat, next the bow-oar, just
beside Tom Lokins, who was ready with his harpoons in the bow. Young
Borders pulled the oar directly in front of me. The captain himself
steered, and, as our crew was a picked one, we soon left the other two
boats behind us.

Presently a small whale rose close beside us, and, sending a shower of
spray over the boat, went down in a pool of foam. Before we had time to
speak, another whale rose on the opposite side of the boat, and then
another on our starboard bow. We had got into the middle of a shoal of
whales, which commenced leaping and spouting all round us, little aware
of the dangerous enemy that was so near.

In a few minutes more, up comes the big one again that we had first
seen. He seemed very active and wild. After blowing on the surface
once or twice, about a quarter of a mile off, he peaked his flukes, and
pitched down head foremost.

"Now then, lads, he's down for a long dive," said the captain; "spring
your oars like men, we'll get that fish for certain, if you'll only
pull."

The captain was mistaken; the whale had only gone down deep in order to
come up and breach, or spring out of the water, for the next minute he
came up not a hundred yards from us, and leaped his whole length into
the air.

A shout of surprise broke from the men, and no wonder, for this was the
largest fish I ever saw or heard of, and he came up so clear of the
water, that we could see him from head to tail, as he turned over in the
air, exposing his white belly to view, and came down on his great side
with a crash like thunder, that might have been heard six miles off. A
splendid mass of pure white spray burs