which invariably, no matter what his faults may be, will gain him respect both from officers and crew; sailors, as a class, admiring reckless courage, and although they will always follow where an officer in whom they have confidence leads, the slightest suspicion of their leader’s capability or courage is sufficient to damp their ardor, and cause them to act with lukewarm efforts. I do not mean to cast a stigma on the well-won reputation of seamen for courage, but from the discipline of a well-regulated ship, the seaman is taught to look up to his officers, who, in his eyes, bear all the responsibility, and thus in a measure he regulates all his motions by that of his superior, and if anything goes wrong, imputes the error to its proper source. They possess an old and familiar proverb--viz., “Obey orders if you break owners,” and nine-tenths of seafaring men adopt it to the letter, and thus avoid blame. Two weeks after leaving home we were startled at about six o’clock A. M., by the look-outs at the fore and maintopgallant cross-trees singing out, “There blows! there blows! there blows!” continuously, at intervals of about thirty seconds. After about ten minutes of vocal execution, they cried out, “There goes flukes,” emphasizing with great force the second word in the sentence. This was confirmatory of the presence of sperm whales, and as their yield is by far greater in value than that obtained from any other fish, we of course were anxious to capture one or more of them. After considerable manœuvring on our part, attended by excitement and bustle, three boats were lowered away. Several hours were fruitlessly spent in pulling and sailing, when the chase was given up as hopeless, the whales going faster to windward than we could pursue them. The weather was threatening, the sea boisterous, and therefore our seats in the boat were neither pleasant nor dry; consequently, at the expiration of three and a half hours, we returned to the ship. As I stepped aboard of her I felt that I had reached home, and ever after that, as long as I belonged to her, home and the old barkey were to me synonymous terms. Whilst in the boats I saw a whale breach or leap bodily into the air, his vast bulk appearing in bas relief, suspended for a moment in mid air--the sky above, the sea beneath--and although it was not so perfect a display of the creature’s immensity and power as I often afterwards witnessed, still I was struck with the greatness of the Creator’s works in this, to us, almost unknown element.