alled the "Cape Whale."

"What a lucky chance it would be if we could capture it!" cried the
sailor. "Ah, if we only had a proper boat and a good harpoon, I would
say, 'After the beast,' for he would be well worth the trouble of
catching!"

"Well, Pencroft," observed Harding, "I should much like to watch you
handling a harpoon. It would be very interesting."

"I am astonished," said the reporter, "to see a whale in this
comparatively high latitude."

"Why so, Mr. Spilett?" replied Herbert. "We are exactly in that part
of the Pacific which English and American whalemen call the whale
field, and it is here, between New Zealand and South America, that the
whales of the southern hemisphere are met with in the greatest
numbers."

And Pencroft returned to his work, not without uttering a sigh of
regret, for every sailor is a born fisherman, and if the pleasure of
fishing is in exact proportion to the size of the animal, one can
judge how a whaler feels in sight of a whale. And if this had only
been for pleasure! But they could not help feeling how valuable such a
prize would have been to the colony, for the oil, the fat, and the
bones would have been put to many uses.

Now it happened that this whale appeared to have no wish to leave the
waters of the island. Therefore, whether from the windows of Granite
House, or from Prospect Heights, Herbert and Gideon Spilett, when they
were not hunting, or Neb unless presiding over his fires, never left
the telescope, but watched all the animal's movements. The cetacean,
having entered far into Union Bay, made rapid furrows across it from
Mandible Cape to Claw Cape, propelled by its enormously powerful
flukes, on which it supported itself, and making its way through the
water at the rate little short of twelve knots an hour. Sometimes also
it approached so near to the island that it could be clearly
distinguished. It was the southern whale, which is completely black,
the head being more depressed than that of the northern whale.

They could also see it throwing up from its air-holes to a great
height, a cloud of vapour, or of water, for, strange as it may appear,
naturalists and whalers are not agreed on this subject. Is it air or
is it water which is thus driven out? It is generally admitted to be
vapour, which, condensing suddenly by contact with the cold air, falls
again as rain.

However, the presence of this mammifer preoccupied the colonists. It
irritated Pencroft espec