On the 22d we sighted sperm whales. Lowering away the waist boat, we went on to the fish--the boatsteerer darted; but the irons struck the head, and did not penetrate. The whales started to the windward, and we saw no more of them--getting nothing but fisherman’s luck for our pains. On the 25th we were informed of the probable loss of the ship Twilight, of New Bedford: it being supposed that she had foundered at sea. The report was originated by the captain of the barque Draco. It appears that the two vessels sailed from King George’s Sound in company; and, experiencing an exceedingly heavy gale, they agreed to lie by each other during the night, either party, if desirous of running before the gale, agreeing to fire a rocket or show a light. No such signal was seen from the Draco; and next morning, on the Twilight’s not being discernible, the conclusion was arrived at that she was lost. We were agreeably surprised, a few weeks after, by a sight of the missing ship. Her captain had before been informed of the report; and, on our running across his stern, to our captain’s hail he replied, that his ship was the Nonsuch of New Bedford. About this time, I was much amused by an original method, which our captain instituted, to stop pugilistic encounters between the boys. On the evening previous, a Portuguese boy and a New Bedford youngster engaged in a game of fisticuffs, resulting in black eyes and skinned noses to both the participants. The captain, on making inquiry the next morning, discovered enough to justify him in punishing them. For this purpose he tied their left hands firmly together, and placed reef-points in their right hands. (These points are manilla ropes, three feet long, whipped at both ends, and about three-fourths of an inch in diameter--a formidable weapon in a strong hand.) Then, after getting them in position, he instructed them to lay their points on each other’s backs. The Bedford boy refusing to do this, the captain took the point in his own hand, and gave him a cut, which operated like fire amidst dry wood. At it they went; and, both being game, they continued the infliction of the points for half an hour, when they were stopped by the old man. One of them was then sent to sit astride the extreme end of the flying jib-boom, and the other to occupy a similar position on the spanker-boom. The other ships’ officers said, merrily, that old Sherman was trimming ship to beat them.