lady’s arms, or she in mine, I do not now remember which; during said contact I was convinced that the large size of the ladies was a work of art and not of nature. This called my wandering memory back to the descriptions of hoops that I had heard, and henceforth the solution of the mystery was easy. Having made such a poor attempt on my first promenade, I returned to the house, situated on Union Street (I preferred a private house to a hotel), where also were several other of my shipmates; and in talking of old times we whiled away the hours, nor thought them irksome. When evening came and we sat down to supper at the well-spread board, enlivened by the genial and handsome face of our worthy landlady, we began to realize what comforts and pleasures we had been deprived of by our three years’ jaunt; instead of sitting down on a rude chest, with tin pan and pot before one, and a sheath-knife to carve out the salt junk that formed the greater part of our repast, here were the various viands arranged in a clean and neat manner, inviting the hungry and the gourmand to partake of them. After supper we smoked our cigars, and, tired with the exercise of the day, retired early, and enjoyed a night of refreshing slumber, uninterrupted by the hoarse cry of “Starbowlines, ahoy!” “Eight Bells!” or the still less welcome one of “All hands turn out and take in sail.” Then, again, each was comfortably ensconced between clean sheets, on feather beds, totally distinctive in all their relations from our own straw mattresses, packed down by three years use, and well-worn, dusky-looking blankets. All was comfort, and we appreciated it as only men can who for years have been deprived of the many little et ceteras that make life bearable. The succeeding morning I proceeded to the telegraph office and telegraphed home, receiving an answer that satisfied my fullest longings. All my immediate family were alive and well; but such was not the case with some of my less fortunate shipmates--several had lost fathers, one a mother, others a sister or brother; in fact, there were few but had to weep for a near and dear one gone, whom in the fullness of their wishes they had hoped would have been the first to welcome them home. My shipmates, I said before, looked different from what they did aboard ship; but some of them were exceptions to this rule. Several had nothing coming to them, and could get neither clothing nor money; pretty hard, was it not, after over three years hard work at sea for one employer, to land without the wherewithal to purchase a meal’s victuals. There is a dark side to the whaling service, and I shall endeavor to place it before the community in its true character, and I hope that it may discourage those young men from embarking in it who think that money can be saved on a whaling voyage, because there is so little opportunity to spend it.