y experience, placed at the after-oar in the
mate's boat, where it was my duty to attend to the "main sheet" when the
sail was set, where also I had the benefit of the lightest oar except
the small one used by the harpooner in the bow.

The very next day after our first exhaustive boat drill, a school of
"Black Fish" was reported from aloft, with great glee the officers
prepared for what they considered a rattling day's fun.

The Black Fish (PHOCAENA SP.) is a small toothed whale, not at all
unlike a miniature cachalot, except that its head is rounded at the
front, while its jaw is not long and straight, but bowed. It is as
frolicsome as the porpoise, gambolling about in schools of from twenty
to fifty or more, as if really delighted to be alive. Its average size
is from ten to twenty feet long, and seven or eight feet in girth,
weight from one to three tons. Blubber about three inches thick, while
the head is almost all oil, so that a good rich specimen will make
between one and two barrels of oil of medium quality.

The school we were now in sight of was of middling size and about
average weight of individuals, and the officers esteemed it a fortunate
circumstance that we should happen across them as a sort of preliminary
to our tackling the monarchs of the deep.

All the new harpoons were unshipped from the boats, and a couple of
extra "second" irons, as those that have been used are called, were put
into each boat for use if wanted. The sails were also left on board. We
lowered and left the ship, pulling right towards the school, the noise
they were making in their fun effectually preventing them from hearing
our approach. It is etiquette to allow the mate's boat first place,
unless his crew is so weak as to be unable to hold their own; but as the
mate always has first pick of the men this seldom happens. So, as usual,
we were first, and soon I heard the order given, "Stand up, Louey, and
let 'em have it!" Sure enough, here we were right among them. Louis let
drive, "fastening" a whopper about twenty feet long. The injured animal
plunged madly forward, accompanied by his fellows, while Louis calmly
bent another iron to a "short warp," or piece of whale-line, the loose
end of which he made a bowline with around the main line which was fast
to the "fish." Then he fastened another "fish," and the queer sight was
seen of these two monsters each trying to flee in opposite directions,
while the second one ranged about