Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-01-09

had shipped without regular outf1t.
But when he saw all that had been
given, smiling at the rough boys as
each one handed me his offering, he
drew me off to his own cubby-hole,
and hauled round his own chest. Out |
on his bed came the contents; and in a
minute there was fair division of all
it Ontained-fannelS, shirts, stock
ings and everything to handkerchief. |
"These are yours, and these are |
NINE" said Chips; land I'll make you
a chest tomorrow.
That's the sort of man he was in
everything. No wonder the boys loved
him, and that the one word spoken in
the best tones of the ship was the name
of the kind-hearted, manly Chips.
He was brave as he was kind. When
whales were chased Chips went down
in boat, and there was no cooler head
among them when the fragile shell
was to be laid broadside to monster
nearly as long as the ship. Once when
the boat was stove in by sweep OF the
awful fiukes in the death-tiurry, one OF
the boys was crushed by the blow and
driven senseless under the water.
w utll NlllpS SCtluC w lllC OulIoSO lAO
counted the heads and missed one, and
down in the bloody brine he went
among the sharks and tiShed up the
sinking body. He was mighty SWIM
mer, and, with only an oar to cling to.
| he held the senSeleSS man out OF water
from noon till sunset.
But to the story. The GaZelle had
been cruising for three months a few
hundred miles off the coast Of western
AuStralia-the great penal colony OF
England-and during that time had
not fallen in with single sperm
whale.
One raw afternoon, with harsh
breeze and a rising sea, at last we
heard the long sing-song cry, from the
mast head, He blows! ther-ee-blo
o-ows!" Four times, at regular inter-
walls of about forty seconds, the cry
was repeated; and then we knew it
was q sperm whale.
1t was five o'clock in the evening
when the first cry was heard, and the
sun went down at $50, with scarcely
five minutes of twilight. AS rule,
on board American whalers, when
whales are seen late in the evening,
the boats are not sent down, unless
circumstances, such as weather, moon
light, and so on are very favorable. In
most cases the course of the whales
and the speed of their travel are care
fully noted. When son conrse'
school of sperm whales will move at
the rate of about six miles an hour;
when feeding they keep on the
same ground" not moving more than
a few miles a day. When late in the
| evening, the ship is steered during the
night according to the observations,
and often finds the school in sight in
the morning, when the boats are at
once sent down.
| This course was not followed on the
evening in question. 1t was not a
school we saw, but a ''lone whale"
and one too Of extraordinary size. The
night promised to be a rough one, and
| the whales motions were strangely
irregular, as if he had lost himself in
an unknown sea.
There is something solemn and mys-
FERROUS in the sight of clone whales,
and marvellous superstitions are cur
rent among whalemen respecting them.
Through spending year after year on
the great waters, whalerS become more
impressionable to supernatural things
than other seamen and long observa-
ton of the shoals or schools of the vast
creatures they pursue, tends to fill
them with amaZement and awe when
they meet with a solitary leviathan
who has abandoned his fellowship with
his kind, who lives by his own law
| lonely, mighty, and terrible.
Soon after the cry from alOft, we
saw the whale from the deck, only
short distance from the ship, and we
might have seen him long before had
not his white. bush-like spout been
lost in the angry whiteness that was
| fast spreading over the sea.
For moment all eyes were fasten-
ed on the long body, like a great, black
tube, over which the waves washed.
Every face was wonder-stricken at the
immense size Of the whale.
Captain Clifford had been examining
| him through glass, which he handed
in turn to each of the officers.
What do you say, Mr.. Hussey!" he
inquired of the first mate, who glanc-
ed at the sun and answered.:
$50 down, sir. we can do it.
Mr.. Joseph" and the captain, turn
ed to the second mate. an old Portu-
guese of extraordinary size. and per-
hapS the most famous whaleman then
| alive.
$50 down, sir, if we want to get
the fellow; We'll never see him
| again.
The two other officers were younger
men, and of the same mind. There
was no time lost in further consulta-
ton.
Swing the boats!'' shouted the ''old
man."
The lines and irons had already been
thrown in by the crew, a ''heave, OH
and a-straining sound, and in one min
ute the four boats struck the water,
and the men were settled on the thwarts
with the long oars out.
The sun was low and large and red.
and the whole western sea and sky
were magnificent in crimson and gold
and black. The picture was one of the
finest I ever saw. The rising sea was
L L. lx,,