enough that the object, whatever it might be, would be
sunk in the trough of the sea just at the moment when we happened to be
hanging on a wave-crest; and it thus happened that several minutes
elapsed without my again catching sight of it. To cut the matter short,
therefore, I handed Forbes my sextant to hold; and, seizing a favourable
opportunity, sprang into the weather main rigging and swarmed aloft as
far as the maintop, from which elevation I knew that I should soon sight
it if it were still above water.

It was not until I was halfway up the shrouds that I fully realised how
heavily it was still blowing, or how violent still was the motion of the
ship. With every lee roll that we took I was involuntarily forced to
cling with all my strength to the rigging, for it seemed to me that
unless I did so I should infallibly be pitched head-foremost into the
top; while when the ship rolled to windward the pressure of the air upon
my body was so great that I was literally jammed hard and fast against
the rigging, unable to move hand or foot. This was even more apparent
when I reached the futtock-shrouds and was surmounting the edge of the
top, the wind sustaining me so completely that I am confident I might
have relaxed my hand-grasp for several seconds without the slightest
danger of falling. However, I gained my lofty perch at last, and, lying
prone in the top in order that I might see under the foot of the
fore-topsail, soon again caught sight of the object.

It was distant about seven miles from the ship, bearing about
north-north-east by compass, and floated very low in the water; a
circumstance which, from the thick mist still overspreading the surface
of the water, rendered it impossible at that distance to determine
precisely what it was. It looked as much like a dead whale as anything
else, and had I felt quite certain that it was really this, I should of
course have troubled no more about it. But there were moments when,
probably from some slight change in its position with regard to us, the
resemblance I have mentioned ceased, and the conviction forced itself
upon me that, whatever it might be, it was _not_ a whale, living or
dead; and at length, to set the matter at rest, I determined to fill
upon the ship and get a nearer look at it. I accordingly descended to
the deck, and, Forbes rousing out Joe and San Domingo, we all went to
work, and, with some difficulty, succeeded in setting the fore-topmast
sta