nd bigger, until its gloom was terrible. The
pipe, or stem, got thinner gradually, until it became a mere thread;
nor, although watching closely, could we determine when the connection
between sea and sky ceased--one could not call it severed. The point
rising from the sea settled almost immediately amidst a small commotion,
as of a whirlpool. The tail depending from the cloud slowly shortened,
and the mighty reservoir lost the vast bulge which had hung so
threateningly above. Just before the final disappearance of the last
portion of the tube, a fragment of cloud appeared to break off. It fell
near enough to show by its thundering roar what a body of water it must
have been, although it looked like a saturated piece of dirty rag in its
descent.

For whole days and nights together we sometimes lay almost "as idle as
a painted ship upon a painted ocean," when the deep blue dome above
matched the deep blue plain below, and never a fleck of white appeared
in sky or sea. This perfect stop to our progress troubled none, although
it aggravates a merchant skipper terribly. As for the objects of our
search, they had apparently all migrated other-whither, for never a sign
of them did we see. Finbacks, a species of rorqual, were always pretty
numerous, and as if they knew how useless they were to us, came and
played around like exaggerated porpoises. One in particular kept us
company for several days and nights. We knew him well, from a great
triangular scar on his right side, near the dorsal fin. Sometimes he
would remain motionless by the side of the ship, a few feet below the
surface, as distinctly in our sight as a gold-fish in a parlour globe;
or he would go under the keel, and gently chafe his broad back to and
fro along it, making queer tremors run through the vessel, as if she
were scraping over a reef. Whether from superstition or not I cannot
tell, but I never saw any creature injured out of pure wantonness,
except sharks, while I was on board the CACHALOT. Of course, injuries to
men do not count. Had that finback attempted to play about a passenger
ship in such a fashion, all the loungers on board would have been
popping at him with their revolvers and rifles without ever a thought
of compunction; yet here, in a vessel whose errand was whale-fishing,
a whale enjoyed perfect immunity. It was very puzzling. At last my
curiosity became too great to hear any longer, and I sought my friend
Mistah Jones at what I considered