se who come against him. Thus, the whalers have
but one danger to guard against, in assaulting the common animal, viz.,
his flukes, or tail; while the spermaceti, in addition to the last means
of defence, possesses those of his teeth or jaws. As this latter animal is
quite one-third head, he has no very great dissemblance to the alligator
in this particular.

By means of this brief description of the physical formation and habits of
the animals of which our adventurers were in pursuit, the general reader
will be the better able to understand that which it is our duty now to
record. After rowing the distance named, the boats became a little
separated, in their search for the fish. That spouts had been seen, there
was no doubt; though, since quitting the schooners, no one in the boats
had got a further view of the fish,--if fish, animals with respiratory
organs can be termed. A good look-out for spouts had been kept by each man
at the steering-oars, but entirely without success. Had not Roswell and
Daggett, previously to leaving their respective vessels, seen the signs of
whales with their own eyes, it is probable that they would now have both
been disposed to return, calling in their mates. But, being certain that
the creatures they sought were not far distant, they continued slowly to
separate, each straining his eyes in quest of his game, as his boat rose
on the summit of the rolling and tossing waves. Water in motion was all
around them; and the schooners working slowly up against the trades, were
all that rewarded their vigilant and anxious looks. Twenty times did each
fancy that he saw the dark back, or head, of the object he sought; but as
often did it prove to be no more than a lipper of water, rolling up into a
hummock ere it broke, or melted away again into the general mass of the
unquiet ocean. When it is remembered that the surface of the sea is tossed
into a thousand fantastic outlines, as its waves roll along, it can
readily be imagined how such mistakes could arise.

At length Gardiner discerned that which his practised eye well knew. It
was the flukes, or extremity of the tail of an enormous whale, distant
from him less than a quarter of a mile, and in such a position as to place
the animal at about the same breadth of water from Daggett. It would seem
that both of these vigilant officers perceived their enemy at the same
instant, for each boat started for it, as if it had been instinct with
life. The pike