at all. It might do some injury
in its passage, and an axe is always applied near the bows, when it is
found necessary to cut from a whale.

[* We suppose this word to be a corruption of the Dutch "_schule_"
which, we take it, means the same thing.]

It was so unusual a thing to see a fish turn towards the spot where he was
struck, that Roswell did not know what to make of this manoeuvre in his
bull. At first he supposed the animal meant to make fight, and set upon
him with its tremendous jaws; but it seemed that caprice or alarm
directed the movement; for, after coming within a hundred yards of the
boat, the creature turned and commenced sculling away to windward, with
wide and nervous sweeps of its formidable flukes. It is by this process
that all the fish of this genus force their way through the water, their
tails being admirably adapted to the purpose. As the men had showed the
utmost activity in hauling in upon the line, by the time the whale went
off to windward again they had got the boat up within about four hundred
feet of him.

Now commenced a tow, dead to windward, it being known that a fish, when
struck, seldom runs at first in any other direction. The rate at which the
whale moved was not at the height of his speed, though it exceeded six
knots. Occasionally, this rate was lessened, and in several instances his
speed was reduced to less than half of that just mentioned. Whenever one
of these lulls occurred, the men would haul upon the line, gradually
getting nearer and nearer to the fish, until they were within fifty feet
of his tremendous flukes. Here, a turn was taken with the line, and an
opportunity to use the lance was waited for.

Whalers say that a forty-barrel bull of the spermaceti sort is much the
most dangerous to deal with of all the animals of this species. The larger
bulls are infinitely the most powerful, and drive these half-grown
creatures away in herds by themselves, that are called 'pads,' a
circumstance that probably renders the young bull discontented and fierce.
The last is not only more active than the larger animal, but is much more
disposed to make fight, commonly giving his captors the greatest trouble.
This may be one of the reasons why Roswell Gardiner now found himself
towing at a reasonable rate, so close upon the flukes of a hundred-barrel
whale. Still, there was that in the movements of this animal, that induced
our hero to be exceedingly wary. He was now two leagues