Gambling, too, soon developed itself, and after a hard day’s work, or when the gale was piping through the ringing, and the waves surging and hissing in ocean’s cauldron, rendering the vessel’s motion unsteady, so that the participators in the game could scarce retain their seats, I have seen a half-dozen seated around a chest (or, in sailor’s parlance, donkey), a pile of tobacco in the centre, shuffling a pack of dirty, greasy cards, playing bluff or all-fours, and watching the game as if their very existence depended on the winning or losing a few pounds of tobacco. By this operation the green hands were the losers, of course; those who had been to sea before working together, and always making the game profitable to themselves; therefore, those who had not strength of mind to refrain, were soon stripped of all their tobacco; and I remember, one evening, seeing a man, after losing all his stock, pull his shirt off his back and sell it for tobacco to continue the game. This being speedily dissipated, his under-shirt was disposed of in the same way. We, who did not take part in the game, stood it as long as we could, as the usual attendants to a game of chance, high words and quarrelling were rife; we finally began to complain, when the captain, to avoid disturbance, offered a pound of tobacco for every pack of cards that should be brought to him. This had the desired effect, and we had the satisfaction of seeing the cards hove overboard and lightly floating astern. We congratulated ourselves on this amelioration of discomfort; but an inventive genius from New Jersey, becoming, as he said, oppressed with ennui, manufactured a set of dominoes from a sperm whale’s jaw; another contrived dice; whilst a third made a checker-board; a fourth originated a sweat-table; and thus we were attended by this evil throughout the voyage--the only intermission being Sundays and the time occupied in capturing and taking care of whales.