The Monticellonian., 1902-07-11
WHALE HUNTING |
 By MARK SULLIVAN.

TIE was q Norwegian, but his sea IT English was as good as the kings.
 He was big and muscular, with a rare combination of weight and wiriuess. l His face and eyes were stern enough when he shouted orders from the bridge, but, when playing the host in i his cabin, as merry q $ a Santa Claus without the whiskers. His skin was 1 tanned by the salt spray and burned by the sun of every degree of latitude where ships have ever been. He had caught whales in every sea, from the Persian gulf to Baffin's bay; and few years ago he abandoned the old way of New Bedford and all romance-the three-year-long. round the world l cruise in a sailing vessel-to try the adaptation of steam to whaling. For the big brick oven on the deck to boil the blubber (which all remember who know The Cruise of the Cachalot) he substituted a permanent factory for refining the oil, located on the north ern shore of Newfoundland. From this he steamed out to the whaling grounds each morning and back at night, rare ly without prize. For the old method of throwing a harpoon by hand from small boat he substituted harpoon gun from the bow of his whaler; and with tbese improvements conducted business that will soon make the few surviving New Bedford sailing whalers as obsolete as wooden blows.
 I lay ip his spare bunk, across the narrow cabin from his own. and l dropped to sleep as he finished tale, strangely like Kipting's "fhree Seal CTS" of fight between rival crews for dead whale in the 0khotsk sea. Only minute later, it seemed. I bumped my head against the top of the bunk to the quick awakening of an excited Norwegian craft cry from the top of the companionway. The captain leaped from his bunk. He waited not for shoes nor for other clothes than those he selpt in. but bounded up the steps, shouting orders as he ran. While I dressed could feel the quick stopping. the short advances and retreats of the engines, and l knew we were stalking game. When I reached the deck the captain had one hand on the gun. swinging it about on its pivot. With the other he was making signals 0 the engineer to stop, to go toward a little, or to go back. Following his eyes, caught sight of our game. 1t looked like a huge, eigar-shaped piece of smooth, shiny slate-colored India rub Der, rising at regular intervals so that four or five feet of his diameter and 40 feet of his length showed like a mound on the smooth water. With alternate rising and dipping he was gliding smoothly forward, without apparent exertion, but with tremendous speed, and in a perfectly straight line, We were approaching him from behind a t an angle, so that his course and ours were the sides of Y.
 The captain on the raised platform in the bow, following with the mout of his cannon the course of the whale, was the personifeatiCn of alertness. The crew were grouped behind him as eager and eXpectant as if they had never caught a whale before. One of them touched me on the shoulder and pointed. silently mile away. where dozen other whales were spoutng fine columns of vapor. When I turnc again to our whale he had risen once more, and we were within 30 feet of him. Every person on the ship was in a state of tiptoe alertness. Suddenly came the crash of the gun. saw hid eous red zigzag gash on the broad side of the whale; l heard the rumbling roar of the time bomb at the point of the harpoon exploding in the whales yitals On deck there was convulsive pandemonium. The captain. in the de- lirum of tine hunter at the death of his quarry, was shrieking shrill staccato orders. The crew were leaping to their posts. Suddenly felt the bow of the vessel give jerk beneath me. then tremhle moment, and slowly dip.
 The whale had gone straight down. ward. The rope attached to the har- poon shot over the bow so fast that the eye could not follow; where it touched the wood a curling column of smoke arose. The windlass spun round like a boys top. 1t hummed and buzzed with the noise of 3 flying locomotive Coil after coil of rope leaped into noth- ingness like magician's flower pots. Gradually the windlasS ceased to spin The whale had touched bottom. The captain signaled to back the ship lest i he should come up afoul of the propel Ter. The rope foated slack on the water. There was q minute or two of silent, expectant suspe nse. Then, right in front of the bow, so close Icould have poked my finger against the fabby blubber. Cp rose the giant nose--up. up. up till he lowered full 15 feet above the rail! I jumped back in genuine