missing, and as we knew that he could not swim, we were apprehensive that he was drowned; but on the instant his head made its appearance, and I shoved him an oar, with which he supported himself until picked up. After finding all safe, we laughed at the accident, and looking around for the whale, discovered him apparently taking a view of us--his profuse bleeding rendering it impossible for him to sound. On our approach he gradually receded from us stern foremost. We were twelve in a boat, almost out of sight of the ship, and had anything happened to our boat at this stage of the operation, some, if not all of us, would have lost the numbers of our mess; but Providence protected us, and we came off harmless. On going on to the whale to lance him, the monster would roll on his side, display his enormous jaw, and attempt to seize the boat with it. This was repeated a number of times, when those in the ship, which had been gradually nearing us, discovering only one boat, and that full of men, they lowered away two boats. One went in pursuit of the capsized boat, while the other came to our assistance, and fastened to the whale, discharging three-bomb lances into him. These caused him to roll and groan, but not producing a fatal effect, our boat returned to the ship for more, which were likewise deposited in his carcass; but it was not until sundown that he rolled fin out, and was brought alongside. We secured him for the night, and the next morning proceeded to cut him in. This is a very different operation from cutting-in a right whale; the two species being totally dissimilar. The first move with the sperm whale is to separate the head from the body, and when the jaw is loose, heave it in. Cutting off the head consumes, if a large whale is the subject, from two to four hours, according to the dexterity of the manipulator; if a proficient handles the spade, it is a work of but little trouble, but if a bungler, he wearies everybody’s patience out beside his own. The head, when completely clear, is made fast to the ship’s quarter by a strong chain, and the body then hove in. When the small is cleared away, the head is hooked on to and hove out of the water, then separated into two portions, known as the case and junk, and separately hove in. If the whale is very large the case is bailed overboard, so as not to endanger the ship’s spars by so heavy a heave--in this case we hove it in. Whilst heaving in our last body piece, to which the flukes were attached, they swung around and knocked the second mate and a boatsteerer overboard, with spades in their hands. They soon were recovered and on deck safe again.