r as soon as the fish was fast. He made a fearful to-do over it,
rolling completely over several times backward and forward, at the same
time smiting the sea with his mighty tail, making an almost deafening
noise and pother. But we were comfortable enough, while we unshipped the
mast and made ready for action, being sufficiently far away from him
to escape the full effect of his gambols. It was impossible to avoid
reflecting, however, upon what WOULD happen if, in our unprepared and
so far helpless state, he were, instead of simply tumbling about in an
aimless, blind sort of fury, to rush at the boat and try to destroy it.
Very few indeed would survive such an attack, unless the tactics were
radically altered. No doubt they would be, for practices grow up in
consequence of the circumstances with which they have to deal.

After the usual time spent in furious attempts to free himself from our
annoyance, he betook himself below, leaving us to await his return, and
hasten it as much as possible by keeping a severe strain upon the line.
Our efforts in this direction, however, did not seem to have any effect
upon him at all. Flake after flake ran out of the tubs, until we were
compelled to hand the end of our line to the second mate to splice his
own on to. Still it slipped away, and at last it was handed to the third
mate, whose two tubs met the same fate. It was now Mistah Jones' turn to
"bend on," which he did with many chuckles as of a man who was the last
resource of the unfortunate. But his face grew longer and longer as the
never-resting line continued to disappear. Soon he signalled us that he
was nearly out of line, and two or three minutes after he bent on his
"drogue" (a square piece of plank with a rope tail spliced into its
centre, and considered to hinder a whale's progress at least as much as
four boats), and let go the end. We had each bent on our drogues in the
same way, when we passed our ends to one another. So now our friend was
getting along somewhere below with 7200 feet of 1 1/2-inch rope, and
weight additional equal to the drag of sixteen 30-feet boats.

Of course we knew that, unless he were dead and sinking, he could not
possibly remain much longer beneath the surface. The exhibition of
endurance we had just been favoured with was a very unusual one, I was
told, it being a rare thing for a cachalot to take out two boats' lines
before returning to the surface to spout.

Therefore, we separated as wi