unusual one, I was told, it being a rare thing for a cachalot to
take out two boats' lines before returning to the surface to
spout.

Therefore, we separated as widely as was thought necessary, in
order to be near him on his arrival. It was, as might be
imagined, some time before we saw the light of his countenance;
but when we did, we had no difficulty in getting alongside of him
again. My friend Goliath, much to my delight, got there first,
and succeeded in picking up the bight of the line. But having
done so, his chance of distinguishing himself was gone. Hampered
by the immense quantity of sunken line which was attached to the
whale, he could do nothing, and soon received orders to cut the
bight of the line and pass the whale's end to us. He had hardly
obeyed, with a very bad grace, when the whale started off to
windward with us at a tremendous rate. The other boats, having
no line, could do nothing to help, so away we went alone, with
barely a hundred fathoms of line, in case he should take it into
his head to sound again. The speed at which he went made it
appear as if a gale of wind was blowing and we flew along the sea
surface, leaping from crest to crest of the waves with an
incessant succession of cracks like pistol-shots. The flying
spray drenched us and prevented us from seeing him, but I fully
realized that it was nothing to what we should have to put up
with if the wind freshened much. One hand was kept bailing the
water out which came so freely over the bows, but all the rest
hauled with all their might upon the line, hoping to get a little
closer to the flying monster. Inch by inch we gained on him,
encouraged by the hoarse objurgations of the mate, whose
excitement was intense. After what seemed a terribly long chase,