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Updated: July 3, 2025
The charms were carved out of bone, and represented whales, bears, ravens, land otters, eagles, thunderbirds, etc., and various other animals and fish, each accredited with special virtues for the cure of certain diseases. Selecting several which I desired to purchase, I placed in his hand the pieces of silver I was willing to pay for them.
The swirl of the ship's wash brought diatomaceous scum from the sides of this ice. The water became thick with diatoms at 9 a.m., and I ordered a cast to be made. No bottom was found at 210 fathoms. The 'Endurance' continued to advance southward through loose pack that morning. We saw the spouts of numerous whales and noticed some hundreds of crab-eaters lying on the floes.
It is true, that a good many boats were stove, and two Kannakas were drowned, that very summer, in consequence of these tactics; but the whales were killed, and Betts and the black escaped with whole skins.
"In chase of those whales out there," answered the captain; "for, doctor, I can see them as well as you do." Of this there could be no doubt. Several at that instant appeared at various distances. The excitement of the moment had given the required stimulus to the captain's nerves, and he was restored to sight.
As the reader may, perhaps, have been asking a few questions about the whale in his own mind, I shall try to answer them, by telling a few things concerning that creature which, I think, are worth knowing. In the first place, the whale is not a fish! I have applied that name to it, no doubt, because it is the custom to do so; but there are great differences between the whales and the fishes.
Although neither of the schooners was thoroughly fitted for a whaler, each had lines, lances, harpoons, &c., in readiness in their quarter-boats, prepared for any turn of luck like this which now offered. The process of paddling up to whales, which is now so common in the American ships, was then very little or not at all resorted to.
The truth is, that living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a species are by no means creatures of ill odor; nor can whalemen be recognised, as the people of the middle ages affected to detect a Jew in the company, by the nose.
It is unfavorable for a trip to the mainland; but doubtless I shall find an opportunity of getting ashore before night. The highest part of Appledore is about eighty feet above the sea. Mr. Laighton has seen whales off the island, both on the eastern side and between it and the mainland; once a great crowd of them, as many as fifty.
A striking and by no means a pleasant change took place in the general appearance of the Red Eric immediately after the successful chase detailed in the last chapter. Before the arrival of the whales the decks had been beautifully clean and white, for Captain Dunning was proud of his ship, and fond of cleanliness and order.
He shall be depicted as resting on a car drawn by whales, with the Tritons all around in front of him, with their trumpets, and also the Nymphs, and behind him some beasts of the sea; or, if not with all these things, at least with some of them, according to the space that you will have, which to me appears little for so much matter.
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