“I tink me get some slices of meat out of de back of de creature,” said Nub. “We no want food now.”
“We shall find it rather high-flavoured and somewhat tough,” observed the mate; “but it will keep body and soul together; and we must not be particular.”
Walter, though very hungry, felt no inclination to eat whale’s blubber, especially if the creature had been dead for some time,—though he had heard that the Eskimos consider it dainty food, and eat it in vast quantities. Poor Alice, who had been unable to swallow the mixture of flying-fish and oil, shuddered at the thought.
“I see a quantity of gear hanging about the creature’s head,” said Walter; “and that makes me suppose that it must have been fast to a ship. If so, it cannot be a fish my father has struck; and some other whaler besides ours must be in the neighbourhood.”
“I am of your mind,” said the mate. “We shall know for certain, when we get alongside, by the harpoons. However, the idea gives me hope that we shall obtain assistance before long.”
The voyagers were gradually approaching the monster, which was certainly not a sperm whale, though it was of enormous size, floating far higher out of the water than does that creature. They therefore came to the conclusion that it was of a rare and hitherto unknown species. (Note 1.) A quantity of gear with some large floats hung about its head, while the harpoons sticking in it had their lines attached. The only way to account for this was, that the people who had attacked it had fancied that it was dead, and that it had suddenly revived and broken loose from them.
The whale was soon reached, when the raft was made fast to a couple of the harpoon-lines which hung from its body. It was no easy matter to climb to the top of its back; but the mate, bidding Alice remain on the raft, hauled himself up by the lines which hung from it, Walter and Nub following his example. On reaching the top of the whale’s back, the mate examined the flag.
“This is an American piece of bunting,” he exclaimed. “It shows without doubt that it was killed by the boats of one of their whalers. There are a good many of them in these seas at present, and they are not the fellows to abandon a fish they have once caught.”
“Dat is what I was tinking,” observed Nub. “I don’t tink any Englishman eber kill such a ’straordinary-looking fish as dis.”
“I have seen a good many, but never one like it,” said the mate.