Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/42

Rh grandeur, the greatness of God's creation but in experiencing a storm at sea. Watching it as I did, firmly wedged against the mast, with my arm encircling a cluster of ropes, I could keep my place, notwithstanding the vessel now and then would be on her beam-ends, or some fearful wave, overleaping the bulwarks, seek to take me away. And as I stood there, I could study Nature and Nature's God. As far as the eye could carry me, say for seven miles in every direction, making an area of over one hundred and fifty square miles, the ocean was dancing as if wild with joy. One moment it would seem as if a universal effort was being made by the waters to kiss the clouds; in the next, diving low, low down, as if to hide their laugh over the daring deed; then, as if to signify their unwillingness of my being so cool a spectator, the ship would be borne high up in their snowy arms, and all at once plunged quickly down into the bosom of the sea, covering myself and the decks with tons of briny water.

On the 19th of June we were in lat. 51° 18′ N. long. 49° 12′ W. and here I give a few extracts from my diary to show my ideas and feelings at the time.

"This day saw several of the largest-sized whales, Balœna Physalis, called 'sulphur bottoms' by the whalers. It is indeed the king of fishes, though this term applies to the whale family in general; but, being a very difficult kind to capture, whalers seldom venture in their chase. Less quiet and tranquil in its movements than the Mysticetus, or Greenland whale, it becomes furious when wounded, and renders an approach to it dangerous. Its flight, when struck by the harpoon, is exceedingly rapid, and is so long sustained that it is very difficult—generally impossible—to tire it out. The game is not worth the cost and risk, for the blubber and bone of the Physalis are indifferent in quality and quantity. I had a fine view of these monsters of the deep, as they came within pistol-shot of the vessel. It was a grand sight to me to see a fish (is a whale a fish?) 100 feet long propelling itself quietly forward through the water as though it were but an humble mountain trout.