The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1859-01-29

hoisted them aboard, and ve vsrs iu.s
commencing to strip OF their blubber, when
ono Of the tHleeksuts'' Startled u. ali With
tho welcome cry "a whale p g. whale Jpn
"Whsre away 2" shouted the C.ptain.-
"Dead ahead, four nilss o." was The
answer; and the cold nas," se;xiue his
glass, scrambled up the main rigging a.
though score Of Malay pirates wcre At his
heels. Ho soon announced to the eager
crowd below, that As near a. he could make
OUT there were two large whale. lying
asleep. close together, about six m lies of,
bis praoticed eye measuring tho distance
with greater accuracy than the -lookou.'s.
Blacklist were forgotten-down went the
boats again-and, with . merry cheer, We
bent to tho oar, each crew eager to strike
the first blow. Away, away, over that sea
of glass, we shot like arrows. Not
wave broke the steady dip of the oars, and
they roso and fell with the measured beat
of pendulum; the sunlight on the curling
foam, bent beautiful rainbow around each
Prov, and every time We "feathered" our
blades, shower of diamonds battered down
on tho broken surface. The sharks and
porpoises wheeled and gamboled around US,
perhaps considering US nondescript monsters,
risen from oceans caves, to join their sports;
and, away in the distance, motionless as logs,
the whales awaited our approach. On, on i!
We sped, with steady pull, till only half u
milo separated US from our victims. Already,
in fancy, We were breaking their slumbers
with the harpoon, and ''churnins" their
hfeblood with the merciless lance; but,
hold those humps look strangely. For
moment the oars arc motionless, and every
eye is bent with searching glance, upon
the whales. Suddenly the truth burst upon
US like light, and ''sold," echoed from lip
to liz, and boat to boat, as We dipped our
oars again, and pulled away once more for
the log. As We had been SO nicely fooled,
VIC Determined to make critical examina-
ton of tho cheat. We found it to be the
trunk Of a huge tree watersoaked till its
upper side sank just level with the surface,
while the ssumps Of two giant branches
sticking up, made excellent humps, and had
probably decoyed more than one whaler's
crew into n long pull for nothing. Some
of US stepped out upon the log and fright
cncd the porpoises and mermaids with
spread-eaglo bursts of ocean eloquence.-
We toasted the old tree, with its barnacles
and streaming moss; toasted the savage,
the smoke of whose wigwam, perhaps, had
curled through its branches "swo hundred
years ago." and toasted the pretty daughter
of the pioneer, who, pcrchance, had felled
it where Mississippi's food had caugh. it
and borne it away to the ocean. We traced
its devious wanderiuss, and rccounscd its
strange adventures among steamboats, and
allsator,, as it wended its way toward the
gulf. We depicted the "affectiug" sccae
when the father of waters resigned his help
less charge to the tender mercies of the
gulf stream; in short, we m 'de ourselves
! about rs ridiculous rs fourth of July and
dinner party orator, generally do, then bid
ding the old log ga long FAREWELL" we lief
it "alone in its glory" and pulled for the
ship and supper. After discussing the lat
ter, we stripped tho Blacklist, and then
'.turncd in"
/