easant, and, withal, favourable for getting to our destination. We
soon made the land again about New Plymouth, jogging along near enough
to the coast to admire the splendid rugged scenery of the Britain of
the south. All hands were kept busily employed preparing for stormy
weather--reeving new running-gear, bending the strongest suit of sails,
and looking well to all the whaling gear.

In this active exercise of real sailor-work, the time, though long for
an ordinary passage, passed quickly and pleasantly away, so that when
we hauled round the massive promontory guarding the western entrance
to Foveaux Straits, we were almost surprised to find ourselves there so
soon.

This, then, was the famous and dreaded Solander whaling ground. Almost
in the centre of the wide stretch of sea between Preservation Inlet,
on the Middle Island, and the western end of the South, or Stewart's
Island, rose a majestic mass of wave-beaten rock some two thousand
feet high, like a grim sentinel guarding the Straits. The extent of the
fishing grounds was not more than a hundred and fifty square miles, and
it was rarely that the vessels cruised over the whole of it. The most
likely area for finding whales was said to be well within sight of the
Solander Rock itself, but keeping on the western side of it.

It was a lovely day when we first entered upon our cruising ground, a
gentle north-east wind blowing, the sky a deep, cloudless blue, so
that the rugged outline of Stewart's Island was distinctly seen at its
extreme distance from us. To the eastward the Straits narrowed rapidly,
the passage at the other end being scarcely five miles wide between the
well-known harbour of the Bluff, the port of Invercargill, and a long
rocky island which almost blocked the strait. This passage, though
cutting off a big corner, not only shortening the distance from the
westward considerably, but oftentimes saving outward bounders a great
deal of heavy weather off the Snares to the south of Stewart's Island,
is rarely used by sailing-ships, except coasters; but steamers regularly
avail themselves of it, being independent of its conflicting currents
and baffling winds.

CHAPTER XXV. ON THE SOLANDER GROUNDS

Our opening day was an auspicious one. We had not been within the
cruising radius more than four hours before the long-silent; cry of
"Blo-o-o-w!" resounded from the mainmast head. It was a lone whale,
apparently of large size, though spouting almo