rent degrees of toughness, and in the peculiarities of their
saline properties. Choice old water too, decanted into stout six-barrel
casks, and two pints of which is allowed every day to each soul on board;
together with ample store of sea-bread, previously reduced to a state of
petrifaction, with a view to preserve it either from decay or consumption
in the ordinary mode, are likewise provided for the nourishment and
gastronomic enjoyment of the crew.

But not to speak of the quality of these articles of sailors' fare, the
abundance in which they are put on board a whaling vessel is almost
incredible. Oftentimes, when we had occasion to break out in the hold, and
I beheld the successive tiers of casks and barrels, whose contents were
all destined to be consumed in due course by the ship's company, my heart
has sunk within me.

Although, as a general case, a ship unlucky in falling in with whales
continues to cruise after them until she has barely sufficient provisions
remaining to take her home, turning round then quietly and making the best
of her way to her friends, yet there are instances when even this natural
obstacle to the further prosecution of the voyage is overcome by
headstrong captains, who, bartering the fruits of their hard-earned toils
for a new supply of provisions in some of the ports of Chili or Peru,
begin the voyage afresh with unabated zeal and perseverance. It is in vain
that the owners write urgent letters to him to sail for home, and for
their sake to bring back the ship, since it appears he can put nothing in
her. Not he. He has registered a vow: he will fill his vessel with good
sperm oil, or failing to do so, never again strike Yankee soundings.

I heard of one whaler, which after many years' absence was given up for
lost. The last that had been heard of her was a shadowy report of her
having touched at some of those unstable islands in the far Pacific, whose
eccentric wanderings are carefully noted in each new edition of the South
Sea charts. After a long interval, however, the _Perseverance_--for that
was her name--was spoken somewhere in the vicinity of the ends of the
earth, cruising along as leisurely as ever, her sails all bepatched and
bequilted with rope-yarns, her spars fished with old pipe staves, and her
rigging knotted and spliced in every possible direction. Her crew was
composed of some twenty venerable Greenwich-pensioner-looking old salts,
who just managed to hobble about dec