"Well, and how was it?"
CAPTAIN EDWARDS.
"Why, you see, the Captain was aboard his ship, the Fanny Sprague, and they were sailing along the coast of Long Island, between Amagansett and East Hampton. This whale had been seen about there several times, and they were just after it. Well, one morning—I remember the very date; it was March 15—they caught sight of it. The boats were lowered, and away the whalemen went in pursuit. As they came alongside, Mr. Fee, the mate, who was in the bow of one of the boats, ready with harpoon in hand, hurled it in deep just below where the shoulder-blade would be. This astonished the whale, and it dived at once, splashing the water all around, and staving in the side of the boat with one of its flukes. The water was shallow, though, and the fish soon came up again to spout, and then started to run up the coast at the rate of sixty miles an hour. This was about ten o'clock in the morning. They had also thrown another harpoon into the fish, and the boat was being towed almost alongside, near the tail. After towing them some fifty miles, the whale began to grow tired, and then they stabbed it several times with the lance. It soon died."
"Bravo, Bennie! Now how did you remember all that?"
"Why, I was perfectly certain you and auntie would want to know all about it, and I just listened with all my might, so as I could tell you. I do wish, though, you could have seen it for yourself."
"Suppose now that I did. I have seen many whales, both living and dead, but such things always interest me, and I went in yesterday also to look at this one."
"Oh, Uncle Horace! What did you think of the monster? Did you ever see any other fish so big as that?"
"I am glad you asked your question in that shape, Ben. We will have a little talk about whales. People generally have such incorrect ideas concerning them that I think it is really worth while to give you some instruction, and at all events to start you right, for we shall have time now to make a start, and no more. In the first place, Bennie, always remember a whale is not a fish, and in no way allied to fishes."
"Why, Uncle Horace! What do you mean? Not a fish? I am sure I have read about whale-fishing, and I know they live in the water like fish."