allan will now oblige me by his ideas on the subject."

"How far these islands may be the Capua to the whale, which Mr
Courtenay presumes, I cannot say," answered the surgeon, pompously; "but
I have observed that all the cetaceous tribe are very much annoyed by
vermin, which adhere to their skins. You often see the porpoises, and
smaller fish of this class, throw themselves into the air, and fall flat
on the water, to detach the barnacles and other parasitical insects,
which distress them. May it not be that the whale, being so enormous an
animal, and not able to employ the same means of relief, receives it
from the blows of the thrasher?"

"Bravo, doctor! Why, then, the thrasher may be considered as a medical
attendant to the whale; and, from the specimen we have witnessed of his
humanity, a naval practitioner, I have no doubt," added Jerry.

"Very well, Mr Jerry; if ever you come under my hands, you shall smart
for that."

"Very little chance, doctor: I'm such a miserable object, that even
disease passes by me with contempt. If I ever am in your list, I
presume it will be for a case of plethora," replied Jerry, spanning his
thin waist.

"Young gentlemen, get down directly. What are you all doing there on
the taffrail?" bawled out the first-lieutenant, who had just come up the
ladder.

"We've been looking at a sea-bully," said Jerry in a tone of voice
sufficiently loud to excite the merriment of those about him, without
being heard by the first-lieutenant.

"What's the joke?" observed Mr Bully, coming aft, as the midshipmen
were dispersing.

"Some of Mr J---'s nonsense," replied the surgeon.

This answer not being satisfactory, the first-lieutenant took it for
granted, as people usually do, that the laugh was against himself, and
his choler was raised against the offending party.

"Mr J---! Ay, that young man thinks of anything but his duty. There
he is, playing with the captain's dog; and his watch, I'll answer for
it, or he would not be on deck. Mr J---," continued the
first-lieutenant to Jerry, who was walking up and down to leeward,
followed by a large Newfoundland dog, "is it your watch?"

"Yes, sir," replied Jerry, touching his hat.

"Then why are you skylarking with that dog?"

"I am not skylarking with the dog, sir. He follows me up and down. I
believe he takes me for a _bone_."

"I am not surprised at it," replied the first-lieutenant, laughing.

The surgeon, who remained abaft, wa