, 1880-07-12
A Whale Hunt.

A Whale Hunt.
AS we drew near the school it was
decided to attack the nearest fellow, g
good-slzed island, he seemed to me.
should as soon have thought, if left to
my own Judgment, of heaving lance
into Fort Warren, with the expectation
Of hurting it, but didn't feel as if l
was called upon to point out the alb
surdity of the maneuvers to those men,
who might feel hurt at being exposed
They seemed to know what they were
about, while I-well, was not quite
sure Of the sanity OF tho whole crowd
However, we kept drawing nearer, and
Joe, the man with the gun, began to
handle his howitzer. Just then Eph,
the harpoon fend exclaimed
Hold on, bows there's q right
whale over to leeward."
Where? Where? Where?" cried
all hands.
Eph pointed to black speck on the
horizon, perhaps two miles away. The
reader will recollect that the misty
morning limited our range of horizon.
How did Eph know it was a right
whale thought l to myself, and 1 set
him down for a fraud. Bat he wasn't.
The others corroborated him, and
voted unanimously to attack the stran-
ger. Sail was made on our boat, and
with a flowing sheet We swept down to-
wards the game. 1t was dead to lee
ward, and serenely Indifferent to our
approach:
" Stand by, to lower away" said our
captain.
The huge boom swung inboard as the
steering oar brought us to, within
three boat lengths of the huge creature.
The boat had way enough on to carry
rs right alongside the whale. I, for
one, can say 1 held my breath as we
11ifted down. We all strained our
eyes, nervously watching Joe, as he
balanced his heavy gun, inspected
the priming and slowly brought it to
bear on the enemy. You know, per-
haps. how long the seconds are be-
tween the aim and the fire. 1 thought
that half an hour had passed before
our battery opened. Possibly the time
was thirty seconds. Short as it was,
it suficed to cause serious mistake.
AS our gunner stood up, manly, rigid
and grand against the morning sky,
handling his heavy. weapon as though
it had beed pistol, a sudden gust of
wind shook the Tapping sail and swung
the heavy boom against his arm.
simultaneously we all saw another form
appear beside the whale. It was that
Of young one, calf, as it is called.
As we had been sitting it was sheltered
from US by the body of the mother
All this was discovered by us IN flash.
The next moment we heard the .xlio-
sion, but ere its echoes had uled away
/ saw Joe turn blanched face to US,
and heard him exclaim in q voice
which an awful fear had robbed OF
half its power: "For Gods sake,
boys, back water I've hit the calf. u
Although utterly ignorant of any fea-
sor for such fear on that account, ]
could divine from the looks and actions
Of my comrades that something serious
had happened. The man who had been
holding the sheet of the mainsail tried
to manage it, but, situated as we were,
lying to, it was not easy to do so. AT.
ter few frantic efforts he jumped up,
and catching the huge mast in his arms
threw the whole affair, mast, sail and
all overheard. The others meanwhile
had seized their oars and backed the
boat several lengths away. Eph, rudely
pushing me aside, seized the steering
oar and guided us as we fairly leaped
through the water. Not word had
been spoken since the gunner uttered
his terrified exclamation, but every lip
was firmly set and every eye was
strained in the direction of the whale
I looked there, too, and saw only O
mass of foam where the animal was
churning the waves with her fukes and
circling around her wounded young.
In few minutes we had put quarter
of mile between us and her, bat moi
q rover relaxed his labor or for an in.
slant turned mis- eyes from the scene Of
our adventure. At length Joe NUT.
tered in an undertone "She don't
seem to see us. P'raps the calf warn't
hurt" As he spoke tiny jet of blood
was thrown high into the air. "No,
I've killed it. It's spouting blood"
Ignorant as I was, the sight of that
bloody fountain caused an unaccounts'