the stern supplied by the nineteen-foot steer-oar
circled, backed, and darted ahead like a living thing animated by the
mind of our commander. When the leviathan settled, we gave a wide berth
to his probable place of ascent; when he rushed at us, we dodged him;
when he paused, if only momentarily, in we flew, and got home a fearful
thrust of the deadly lance.

All fear was forgotten now--I panted, thirsted for his life. Once,
indeed, in a sort of frenzy, when for an instant we lay side by side
with him, I drew my sheath-knife, and plunged it repeatedly into the
blubber, as if I were assisting is his destruction. Suddenly the mate
gave a howl: "Starn all--starn all! oh, starn!" and the oars bent like
canes as we obeyed. There was an upheaval of the sea just ahead; then
slowly, majestically, the vast body of our foe rose into the air. Up,
up it went, while my heart stood still, until the whole of that immense
creature hung on high, apparently motionless, and then fell--a
hundred tons of solid flesh--back into the sea. On either side of that
mountainous mass the waters rose in shining towers of snowy foam, which
fell in their turn, whirling and eddying around us as we tossed and fell
like a chip in a whirlpool. Blinded by the flying spray, baling for very
life to free the boat from the water with which she was nearly full,
it was some minutes before I was able to decide whether we were still
uninjured or not. Then I saw, at a little distance, the whale lying
quietly. As I looked he spouted, and the vapour was red with his blood.
"Starn all!" again cried our chief, and we retreated to a considerable
distance. The old warrior's practised eye had detected the coming climax
of our efforts, the dying agony or "furry" of the great mammal. Turning
upon his side, he began to move in a circular direction, slowly at
first, then faster and faster, until he was rushing round at tremendous
speed, his great head raised quite out of water at times, clashing his
enormous jaws. Torrents of blood poured from his spout-hole, accompanied
by hoarse bellowings, as of some gigantic bull, but really caused by the
labouring breath trying to pass through the clogged air passages. The
utmost caution and rapidity of manipulation of the boat was necessary to
avoid his maddened rush, but this gigantic energy was short-lived. In a
few minutes he subsided slowly in death, his mighty body reclined on one
side, the fin uppermost waving limply as he rolled