At two o’clock in the afternoon of October 11th we weighed our anchor, and, with a fair wind, stood out to sea. Twenty-four hours afterwards we sighted a school of sperm whales, consisting of cows and calves. After some little manœuvering, we lowered away all four boats; but the whales going to windward, the captain and mate, after an hour’s chase, deemed farther pursuit useless, and returned aboard. The other boats, however, continued the chase; and at about 5 P. M. the third mate’s boatsteerer fastened, killing the whale with his irons. Whilst hauling up to him, the line became entangled in the jaws of another whale, and was severed. The third mate then lanced and killed three more; but night coming on, and the weather becoming rugged, he was unable to save any of them, and obliged to return to the ship empty-handed. The mate, in the interim, had fastened to a cow, and killed her and her calf, both of which were saved; but it was midnight before we had them secured alongside. These two were the most diminutive whales it has been our fortune to capture. The cow, which was the first female of the species we have had alongside, was about thirty-five feet in length, and of much inferior bulk to the male. Her skin was smoother, glossier, and of a deeper color; and, taken altogether, she was a much handsomer fish than the bull sperm-whale. The calf was about fifteen feet long--lacking none of the peculiarities of the older fish, except the teeth, which as yet were not cut; but on getting the jaw on deck we penetrated the gum, and found perfectly-shaped teeth, about an inch and a half in length. The following day we cut them in, and tried them out. They yielded, altogether, a trifle over twenty barrels of oil. After taking these whales, we ran several degrees to the eastward, and spent a week in cruising, during which we saw whales three times--in each case going to windward eyes out, without giving us the shadow of a chance to lower for them. We retraced our course, and on the 23d passed Mauritius. The following day we coasted along the Isle Reunion, or Bourbon--an island under the dominion of France, and so beautifully fertile as to be called the Garden of the Indian Ocean. From hence the Mauritians obtain most of their agricultural supplies, and quite a fleet of coasting vessels is employed in the carrying trade between the two islands. Some idea may be formed of the amount of this trade when I quote the remark of one of the citizens of Port Louis, that, “were it not for the productions of Bourbon, all the inhabitants of Port Louis would starve to death.” All the tillage and other laborious work on this island is performed by the natives of Madagascar, introduced here by the French, under the same apprentice-system as that practised by Great Britain.