could command we waited near the entrance until the receding ebb made it possible for us to emerge once more into the blessed light of day.  I was horrified at the haggard, careworn appearance of my crew, who had all, excepting the two Kanakas, aged perceptibly during that night of torment.  But we lost no time in getting back to the ship, where I fully expected a severe wigging for the scrape my luckless curiosity had led me into.  The captain, however, was very kind, expressing his pleasure at seeing us all safe back again, although he warned me solemnly against similar investigations in future.  A hearty meal and a good rest did wonders in removing the severe effects of our adventure, so that by next morning we were all fit and ready for the days work again.

It certainly seemed as if I was in for a regular series of troubles.  After cruising till nearly two p.m., we fell in with the mate’s boat, and were sailing quietly along side by side, when we suddenly rounded a point and ran almost on top of a bull-humpback that was basking in the beautiful sunshine.  The mate’s harpooner, a wonderfully smart fellow, was not so startled as to lose his chance, getting an iron well home before the animal realized what had befallen him.  We had a lovely fight, lasting over an hour, in which all the marvellous agility with which this whale is gifted was exerted to the full in order to make his escape.  But with the bottom not twenty fathoms away, we were sure of him.  With all his supple smartness, he had none of the dogged savagery of the cachalot about him, nor did we feel any occasion to beware of his rushes, rather courting them, so as to finish the game as quickly as possible.

He was no sooner dead than we hurried to secure him, and had actually succeeded in passing the tow-line through his lips, when, in the trifling interval that passed while we were taking the line aft to begin towing, he started to sink.  Of course it was, “let go all!” If you can only get the slightest way on a whale of this kind, you are almost certain to be able to keep him afloat, but once he begins to sink you cannot stop him.  Down he went, till full twenty fathoms beneath us he lay comfortably on the reef, while we looked ruefully at one another.  We had no gear with us fit to raise him, and we were ten miles from the ship; evening was at hand, so our prospects of doing anything that night were faint.

However, the mate decided to start off for home at once, leaving us there, but promising to send back a boat as speedily as possible with provisions and gear for the morning.  There was a stiff breeze blowing, and he was soon out of sight; but we were very uncomfortable.  The boat, of course, rode like a duck, but we were fully exposed to the open sea; and the mighty swell of the Pacific, rolling in over those comparatively shallow grounds, sometimes looked dangerously like breaking.  Still, it was better than the cave, and there was a good prospect