I have got adrift from what I was going to tell you about the South
Sea whalers. You see, the whales in those seas are generally
sperm-whales, with blunt bottle-noses, altogether unlike the fish about
here. There is not much difference in the way of killing them, except
that one has not to go among the ice for them, in the way we have here,
as they are met with in `schools' in the open sea. What we call
`making-off' is there called `trying-out.'

"You see, on account of the hot climates they have to come through to
return home, and partly from the value of the blubber, they have to boil
it to get out the oil; and for this object they have to build large
stoves or fire-places with brick on deck, between the fore-mast and main
hatchway; and above them are three or four large pots. The blubber is
then, you see, minced up, and pitched into the pots with long forks.
Just fancy what a curious scene there must be while the trying-out is
going on at night--the red glare of the fires, and the thick lurid smoke
ascending in dense columns round the masts! Any one, not knowing what
was going forward, would think, to a certainty, the ship was on fire;
and then the stench of the boiling oil, hissing and bubbling in the
pots--the suffocating feel of the smoke--the fierce-looking, greasy,
unwashed men--I say, those who have been in a South Sea whaler will
never wish to go again."

I told him that I had no wish, after his description, ever to belong to
one, though I liked the life, as far as I had seen of it, where I was.

"I have not a word to say against it, mate," replied Andrew. "But wait
a bit till we come to boring and cutting through the ice, in case we are
beset, and then you'll say that there is something like hard work to be
done."

It took us two hours to kill our first whale, and four to flense it. We
afterwards performed the last operation in less time, when all hands
were more expert.

The next morning we again stood in towards the ice, to see if there was
any opening through which we might force the ship, but none appeared.
What was curious, we hit the spot to which the krang of the fish we had
killed the day before had floated. We saw something moving on the ice,
as we approached, besides the clouds of wild-fowl which hovered over it,
and on the sea around.

We pointed it out to the second mate. He took his glass, and, putting
it to his eye, exclaimed, "There's a big white bear has just been
breakfasting,