The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

SIZE OF WHALES. 65
tlie whale's convulsive movements just before death, and sometimes he
does great damage as he thrashes about."
Frank wished to know how large the whale was, and how large whales
are generally.
" We don't reckon whales by their length," Captain Spofford answered,
"but by the number of barrels of oil they make. Ask any old captain
how long the largest whale was that he ever took, and the chances are he'll
begin to estimate by the length of his ship, and frankly tell you lie never
measured one. I measured the largest sperm-whale I ever took, and found
him seventy-nine feet long; he made a hundred and seven barrels of oil.
Here's the figures of him : nose to neck, twenty-six feet ; neck to hump,
twenty-nine feet; hump to tail, seventeen feet; tail, seven feet. His tail
was sixteen feet across, and he was forty-one feet six inches around the body.
He had fifty-one teeth, and tlie heaviest weighed twenty-five ounces. We
took nineteen barrels of oil from his case, the inside of the head, whei'e we
dipped it out with a bucket. I know one captain that captured a sperm-
whale ninety feet long, that made a hundred and thirty-seven barrels, and
there was another sperm taken by the ship Monhx, of New Bedford, that
made a hundred and forty-five barrels. I don't know how long he was.
" There's a wonderful deal of excitement in fastening to a whale, and
having a fight with him. You have the largest game that a hunter could
ask for ;
you have the cool pure air of the ocean, and the blue waters all
about you. A thrill goes through every nerve as you rise to throw the
sharp iron into the monster's side, and the thrill continues when he plunges
wildly about, and sends the line whistling over. He sinks, and he rises
again ; he dashes away to windward, and struggles to escape ; you hold
him fast, and, large as he is in proportion to yourself, you feel that he must
yield to you, though, perhaps, not till after a hard battle. At length he
lies exhausted, and you approach for the final blow with the lance. An-
other thrilling moment, another, and another; and if fortune is in your
favor, your prize is soon motionless before you. And the man who cannot
feel an extra beat of his pulse at such a time must be made of cooler stuff
than the most of us.
" But you don't get all the whales you see, by a long shot. Many a
whale gets away before you can fasten to him, and many another whale,
after you have laid on and fastened, will escape you. He sinks, and tears
the iron loose; he runs away to windward ten or twenty miles an hour,
and you must cut the line to save your lives ; he smashes the boat, and
perhaps kills some of his assailants ; he dies helow the surface, and when
lie dies there he stays below, and you lose him ; and sometimes he shows
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