whale. Now, the commonest prudence
would have suggested letting him severely alone, since we were not only
short-handed, but several of our crew were completely crippled by large
boils; but it would have been an unprecedented thing to do while there
was any room left in the hold. Consequently we mustered the halt and the
lame, and manned two boats--all we could do--leaving the almost useless
cripples to handle the ship. Not to displace the rightful harpooner, I
took an oar in one of them, headed by the captain.

At first my hopes were high that we should not succeed in reaching the
victim before dark, but I was grievously disappointed in this. Just as
the whale was curving himself to sound, we got fairly close, and the
harpooner made a "pitch-pole" dart; that is, he hurled his weapon into
the air, where it described a fine curve, and fell point downward on
the animal's back just as he was disappearing. He stopped his descent
immediately, and turned savagely to see what had struck him so
unexpectedly. At that moment the sun went down.

After the first few minutes' "kick-up," he settled down for a steady
run, but not before the mate got good and fast to him likewise. Away we
went at a rare rate into the gathering gloom of the fast-coming night.
Now, had it been about the time of full moon or thereabouts, we should
doubtless have been able, by the flood of molten light she sends down in
those latitudes, to give a good account of our enemy; but alas for us,
it was not. The sky overhead was a deep blue-black, with steely sparkles
of starlight scattered all over it, only serving to accentuate the
darkness. After a short time our whale became totally invisible, except
for the phosphoric glare of the water all around him as he steadily
ploughed his way along. There was a good breeze blowing, which soon
caused us all to be drenched with the spray, rendering the general
effect of things cold as well as cheerless. Needless to say, we strove
with all our might to get alongside of him, so that an end might be put
to so unpleasant a state of affairs; but in our crippled condition it
was not at all easy to do so.

We persevered, however, and at last managed to get near enough for the
skipper to hurl a lance into the brightness of which the whale formed
the centre. It must have touched him, for he gave a bound forward and
disappeared. We suddenly came to a standstill, but in a moment were
whirled round as if on a pivot, and away we