s brought under dog-watch discussion;
but the sea-serpent has never, within my recollection, been one of them.

The reasons for this abstinence may vary a great deal, but chief among
them is--sailors, as a class, "don't believe in no such a pusson." More
than that, they do believe that the mythical sea-serpent is "boomed"
at certain periods, in the lack of other subjects, which may not be
far from the fact. But there is also another reason, involving a
disagreeable, although strictly accurate, statement. Sailors are, again
taken as a class, the least observant of men. They will talk by the
hour of trivialities about which they know nothing; they will spin
interminable "cuffers" of debaucheries ashore all over the world; pick
to pieces the reputation of all the officers with whom they have ever
sailed; but of the glories, marvels, and mysteries of the mighty deep
you will hear not a word. I can never forget when on my first voyage to
the West Indies, at the age of twelve, I was one night smitten with awe
and wonder at the sight of a vast halo round the moon, some thirty or
forty degrees in diameter. Turning to the man at the wheel, I asked him
earnestly "what THAT was." He looked up with an uninterested eye for
an instant in the direction of my finger, then listlessly informed me,
"That's what they call a sarcle." For a long time I wondered what he
could mean, but it gradually dawned upon me that it was his Norfolk
pronunciation of the word "circle." The definition was a typical one, no
worse than would be given by the great majority of seamen of most of the
natural phenomena they witness daily. Very few seamen could distinguish
between one whale and another of a different species, or give an
intelligible account of the most ordinary and often-seen denizens of the
sea. Whalers are especially to be blamed for their blindness. "Eyes and
no Eyes; or the Art of Seeing" has evidently been little heard of among
them. To this day I can conceive of no more delightful journey for a
naturalist to take than a voyage in a southern whaler, especially if he
were allowed to examine at his leisure such creatures as were caught.
But on board the CACHALOT I could get no information at all upon the
habits of the strange creatures we met with, except whales, and very
little about them.

I have before referred to the great molluscs upon which the sperm whale
feeds, portions of which I so frequently saw ejected from the stomach of
dying whal