reminding myself that “he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.”  But when the man’s brain was thrown into the scale against the instinct of the brute, the contest looked less unequal than at first sight, for there is the secret of success.  My musings were very suddenly interrupted.  Whether we had overrun our distance, or the whale, who was not “making a passage,” but feeding, had changed his course, I do not know; but, anyhow, he broke water close ahead, coming straight for our boat.  His great black head, like the broad bow of a dumb barge, driving the waves before it, loomed high and menacing to me, for I was not forbidden to look ahead now.  But coolly, as if coming alongside the ship, the mate bent to the big steer-oar, and swung the boat off at right angles to her course, bringing her back again with another broad sheer as the whale passed foaming.  This manoeuvre brought us side by side with him before he had time to realize that we were there.  Up till that instant he had evidently not seen us, and his surprise was correspondingly great.  To see Louis raise his harpoon high above his head, and with a hoarse grunt of satisfaction plunge it into the black, shining mass beside him up to the hitches, was indeed a sight to be remembered.  Quick as thought he snatched up a second harpoon, and as the whale rolled from us it flew from his hands, burying itself like the former one, but lower down the body.  The great impetus we had when we reached the whale carried us a long way past him, out of all danger from his struggles.  No hindrance was experienced from the line by which we were connected with the whale, for it was loosely coiled in a space for the purpose in the boat’s bow to the extent of two hundred feet, and this was cast overboard by the harpooner as soon as the fish was fast.  He made a fearful to-do over it, rolling completely over several times backward and forward, at the same time smiting the sea with his mighty tail, making an almost deafening noise and pother.  But we were comfortable enough, while we unshipped the mast and made ready for action, being sufficiently far away from him to escape the full effect of his gambols.  It was impossible to avoid reflecting, however, upon what would happen if, in our unprepared and so far helpless state, he were, instead of simply tumbling about in an aimless, blind sort of fury, to rush at the boat and try to destroy it.  Very few indeed would survive such an attack, unless the tactics were radically altered.  No doubt they would be, for practices grow up in consequence of the circumstances with which they have to deal.