is arrival. It was, as
might be imagined, some time before we saw the light of
his countenance; but when we did, we had no difficulty 30
in getting alongside of him again. My friend Goliath,
much to my delight, got there first and succeeded in picking
up the bight of the line. But having done so, his chance
of distinguishing himself was gone. Hampered by the
immense quantity of sunken line which was attached to
the whale, he could do nothing and soon received orders to
cut the bight of the line and pass the whale's end to us. 5

He had hardly obeyed, with a very bad grace, when the
whale started off to windward with us, at a tremendous
rate. The other boats, having no line, could do nothing to
help; so away we went alone, with barely a hundred fathoms
of line in case he should take it into his head to sound again. 10
The speed at which he went made it appear as if a gale of
wind were blowing, and we flew along the sea surface,
leaping from crest to crest of the waves with an incessant
succession of cracks like pistol shots. The flying spray
drenched us and prevented us from seeing him, but I fully 15
realized that it was nothing to what we should have to
put up with if the wind freshened much. One hand was
kept bailing out the water which came so freely over the
bows, but all the rest hauled with all their might upon the
line, hoping to get a little closer to the flying monster. 20
Inch by inch we gained on him. After what seemed a
terribly long chase we found his speed slackening, and we
redoubled our efforts.

Now we were close upon him; now, in obedience to the
steersman, the boat sheered out a bit and we were abreast 25
of his laboring flukes; now the mate hurls his quivering
lance with such hearty good will that every inch of its
slender shaft disappears within the huge body.

"Lay off! Off with her, Louey!" screamed the mate;
and she gave a wide sheer away from the whale, not a 30
second too soon. Up flew that awful tail, descending with
a crash upon the water, not two feet from us.

"Out oars! Pull, two! starn, three!" shouted the mate;
and as we obeyed, our foe turned to fight.

Then might one see how courage and skill were such
mighty factors in the apparently unequal contest. The
whale's great length made it no easy job for him to turn, 5