8 PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR-THE BLACK FISH.

about as large as a hen's egg. The animal resembles a bladder, transparent rose-colored, with a kind of keel formed in festoons, plaited like a ruff, on the upper part. This appendage, being raised above the water, serves for a sail, while numerous tentacula, proceeding from the under side, enable it to steer its course, seize its prey, or to cast anchor, as it were, and fix itself on the moving surface of the waves. It is said to be exceedingly venomous, and one of the mates told us that he had frequently been stung by it while bathing. Though we handled that which was brought on board very freely, none of us felt any annoyance from it. Linnæus denominates this kind of mollusca holocuria physalis.

Towards evening there was again a sudden and loud cry,"There she goes!—she spouts!-a sperm !—I see her fluke!" and in an instant both starboard and larboard boats were lowered, manned, and out in pursuit of a whale. They returned disappointed of their object. The captain and his party, however, had themselves a very narrow, providential escape; for while their boat was lowering, the davits (posts to which the tacklings for that purpose are attached) gave way, when boat and men in it were precipitated upon the sea, but immediately rescued, with some slight personal injuries only, though the captain had no expectation but that the boat must have been stove to pieces by the fall, and some lives lost, if not all.

June 10. (Lord's day.) Mr. Tyerman preached in the morning, from Matt. xvi. 26: "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" and Mr. Jones, in the afternoon, from Psalm 1. 15: "Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." The latter service was somewhat interrupted by the appearance of a vast shoal of what the sailors call black fish. Judging by the space which they occupied, there must have been several hundreds. Two boats were sent after them, and soon returned, each with a prize. These were of that species of whale called delphinus delphis, or the bottlenosed dolphin. The length of the larger was twenty feet, and its girth at the shoulder eleven. The color of the whole body was black, except a small white spot mid-way between the shoulders and the tail; the latter was divided into two lobes, forked, lying in the plane of the horizon, and thirty inches from tip to tip. The form sloped both ways, from the shoulders to the head, and also to the tail. The nose was

THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

9

truncated and remarkably blunt and angular. Two thirds up the face was the blow-hole, through which the animal breathes. When the skin was removed, this orifice would admit the open hand. The mouth was wide, provided with lips; and the jaws were armed with teeth, sharp, bent rather inward, projecting an inch and a half from the gums, an inch in diameter at the root, and two inches asunder. The tongue was the size of that of a full-grown ox; the roof of the mouth hard, rough, and of a dark green. The eyes were larger than those of an ox. Two pectoral fins, hard and strong, about two feet and a half in length, and pointed, bent inward; these were articulated with the shoulder-blades by the ball and socket joint, as the upper part of the arm in the human subject. On the back was a protuberance of solid fat, like a fin, two feet high, diminishing towards the tail. The flesh was black-red; the heart about the bulk of an ox's; the lungs and liver large in proportion. In the stomach were found the remains of various fishes, as the Johndory, (zeus auratus), a conger-eel (murana conger), and the squid (sepia octopodia), or cuttle-fish, with several of their fine transparent eyes. The weight of the greater of these creatures must have been nearly a ton and a half. The fat was from one to two and a half inches thick, under the forehead seven inches. The blubber of both yielded ninety gallons of oil, of which the larger furnished two thirds. The stomachs were preserved and dried to make drum-tops, for which it is said their texture is admirably adapted.

At night, (the sky being clear after much cloudy weather,) for the first time, we descried the constellation crux or the cross. The four stars composing this glory of the southern hemisphere, are of large but varying magnitudes, and so placed as readily to associate with the image of the true cross, the lowest being the brightest. Another beautiful constellation attracted our notice, nearly in the zenith. This was the northern crown, in which seven stars brilliantly encircle two thirds of an oval figure. We were reminded-and though the idea may seem fanciful, yet it was pleasing to ourselves amidst the still night, and on the far sea that while we kept in constant view the cross, that cross on which our Savior died for our redemption, we might venture to hope that the crown, the crown of life, which "the Lord, the righteous Judge," hath promised to "give unto all them that love his appearing," might be bestowed upon "us in that day."

June 11. This being Whit-Monday, we remembered many of our dear friends and connections, who were celebrating, in the land that we love, their Sunday-school anniversaries; and with these, in spirit, we held delightful communion. This day has been chiefly occupied by the crew in cutting up the black-fish caught yesterday, boiling the blubber, and other necessary but disgusting operations. Several holes in the sides and heads of these animals were found crowded with crab-like lice. The same insects are such tormentors of the sperm-whales, that a small fish which feeds on them is said never to be disturbed at his meals by the grateful creatures to whom he renders such welcome service.

June 14. The weather being calm, we have lately made little progress. The sailors amused themselves with bathing and swimming about the ship; occasionally throwing themselves into the water from different parts of the vessel at considerable elevations. Robert, the Tahitian, however, excelled them all in this daring exercise. He climbed the foreyard, and from the end of it precipitated himself without fear or injury into the sea. The height could not have been less than forty feet.

June 16. Two ships were seen this morning, at considerable distances on either side of ours. Perceiving that one of them was standing towards us, our captain manned a boat and went on board, thinking that the crew might be in want of some assistance. It was a Portuguese brig, laden with salt, and bound to one of the South American ports. On the captain's return, we paid a visit to the stranger, to vary the scene, which had become somewhat dull on our own vessel, from the long-continued calm. We were politely received, but could not help pitying the misery and discomfort of those on board; for though the sea was quite still, the water with them was running over the deck. On contrasting our tight, trim ship, and all its internal conveniences, with this crazy hulk, we felt truly thankful for our superior lot.

This evening, while several of the crew were bathing, the captain and others from the deck observed a shark preparing to attack the boatswain, who was not aware of his peril till alarmed by their cries, warning him instantly to make for the ship. Happily he escaped when the monster was within three yards of him, in the very attitude and act to seize his prey. A boat was immediately sent out to return the assault upon the enemy. The boatswain, whose choler had been

most vehemently moved by his, danger, finding himself left behind, immediately baited a large hook with about half a pound of pork, and suspended the line over the stern of the vessel, hoping to allure his late voracious pursuer to its own destruction. In less than five minutes his hope was realized; and his transport then was equal to his former rage, when he saw the shark fast upon his snare. It was quickly hauled on deck, by means of a rope dexterously noosed round its tail. The captive made a desperate floundering, but was overpowered, and despatched as easily as an animal so horribly tenacious of life could be. The motion of the heart actually continued for some minutes after it was taken out of the body. It may be observed, that for the bulk of the fish the heart was remarkably small, not being larger than a pullet's egg. The sailors called this the brown shark (squalus carcharias). It measured six feet in length. Not contented with what

had been already taken, the hook was again baited, and presently another shark (squalus glaucus) was hoisted on board this was eight feet long, and differed in various particulars from the former. It proved to be a female, which, on being opened, was found to include thirty-four young ones, each about a foot in length.

June 17. (Lord's day.) Mr. Tyerman preached on deck in the forenoon to the whole company; but in the afternoon, the weather having changed from almost a dead calm to very heavy wind and rain, Mr. Jones was obliged to perform his duty in the cabin to our own small party.

Talking, during dinner, of the character of those islanders whom we hope soon to see, the captain said that, on his last voyage, when he had gone out as mate only, they had on board two New Zealanders, and a native of Tahiti. The latter, on many occasions, displayed fearless courage and prompt intelligence; of which he gave us a strange example.

Late one evening, he (our captain, then mate) had struck a very large sperm whale, not far from the ship. The fish, after some convulsions, remained motionless for a considerable while, apparently about three yards below the surface of the water. The crew having waited in vain to see her rise, the captain of the vessel was afraid that he should lose her. On looking down earnestly, however, he thought she must be dead, the mouth being open. Hereupon he observed, that he should like to have a noose-rope thrown round the lower jaw; and told the Tahitian youth that he would give him a

12

EXPLOIT OF A TAHITIAN-NIGHT-SCENE.

bottle of rum, if he would venture to dive down and perform that office. The chief mate (our captain), whose harpoon was in the whale, protested against such an attempt as too hazardous; but the captain urged the necessity of making sure of so valuable a booty. The Tahitian, meanwhile, surveying the body as it lay, and tempted by the proffered reward, exclaimed, "Ay, ay, she dead-I go." Accordingly, taking the rope, ready for application, between his two hands, he lowered himself directly over the monster's mouth, put the noose over the lower jaw, placed his foot against the jaw to tighten the rope, and then buoyed himself up, sprang into the boat, and claimed his reward. The carcass was thus secured (for happily the whale was dead,) and towed to the ship. We shall not inquire whether this story most displays the extraordinary boldness of the South Sea islander, or the inhuman cupidity of the European captain of that vessel.

June 20. Last night and this morning we have had squalls and heavy rains. A fresh breeze followed, and is carrying us delightfully along. The captain doubts not but this is the commencement of the south-east trade wind, which we have been desiring through several days of weary calm. The brilliancy of the sea this evening far surpassed what we had hitherto seen of the kind. The ship was going rapidly along, throwing up a furrow of foam about the bow. In this, the luminous appearances before mentioned glittered with peculiar delicacy; but it was after the foam had subsided in the frothless water (itself of a deep-black hue), that they displayed their full splendor, gliding, like millions of diamonds, in giddy succession by the side of the vessel, or flashing in her wake. Lifting our eyes above, we beheld the stars, in the absence of the moon, sparkling with unmitigated lustre, amidst a sky of such intense purity, that the heavenly bodies far excelled in glory their appearance through our native atmosphere.

June 21. As the sun now enters Cancer, and is at his greatest northern distance from the line, this may be called one of the two mid-winter days of the equator. To us the temperature is very agreeable. It has ceased to be a novelty to see our very brief shadows falling towards the south at noon, and at night to observe the moon pursuing her course to the north of the zenith; but these circumstances have not ceased, from time to time, to engage our attention and affect