es. Great as my curiosity naturally was to know more of these
immense organisms, all my inquiries on the subject were fruitless. These
veterans of the whale-fishery knew that the sperm whale lived on big
cuttlefish; but they neither knew, nor cared to know, anything more
about these marvellous molluscs. Yet, from the earliest dawn of history,
observant men have been striving to learn something definite about the
marine monsters of which all old legends of the sea have something to
say.

As I mentioned in the last chapter, we were gradually edging across the
Indian Ocean towards Sumatra, but had been checked in our course by a
calm lasting a whole week. A light breeze then sprang up, aided by which
we crept around Achin Head, the northern point of the great island of
Sumatra. Like some gigantic beacon, the enormous mass of the Golden
Mountain dominated the peaceful scene. Pulo Way, or Water Island, looked
very inviting, and I should have been glad to visit a place so well
known to seamen by sight, but so little known by actual touching at.
Our recent stay at the Cocos, however, had settled the question of our
calling anywhere else for some time decidedly in the negative, unless we
might be compelled by accident; moreover, even in these days of law
and order, it is not wise to go poking about among the islands of the
Malayan seas unless you are prepared to fight. Our mission being to
fight whales, we were averse to running any risks, except in the lawful
and necessary exercise of our calling.

It would at first sight appear strange that, in view of the enormous
traffic of steamships through the Malacca Straits, so easily "gallied"
a creature as the cachalot should care to frequent its waters; indeed,
I should certainly think that a great reduction in the numbers of whales
found there must have taken place. But it must also be remembered, that
in modern steam navigation certain well-defined courses are laid down,
which vessels follow from point to point with hardly any deviation
therefrom, and that consequently little disturbance of the sea by their
panting propellers takes place, except upon these marine pathways; as,
for instance, in the Red Sea, where the examination of thousands of
log-books proved conclusively that, except upon straight lines drawn
from point to point between Suez to Perim, the sea is practically unused
to-day.

The few Arab dhows and loitering surveying ships hardly count in this
connection, of co