"Well, Steve, my lad," cried the doctor, "what do you think of the shoal? You ought to have brought your fishing-rod and line." "Nonsense!" said the lad shortly; "but I say, Mr Handscombe, you don't call these whales?" "What, then, my lad? They're white whales." "Young ones? Then that's why they are white." "No, my lad, old ones. Look; plenty of them have got their two young ones with them." "Oh, but surely these are not full-grown whales! Why, the biggest can't be sixteen feet long." "Quite right; about fourteen, I should say. Come down; you'll want to go in one of the boats. Look; they've got in the lines." Steve looked down, and saw that the men were carefully stowing two tubs in the fore part of the boats, each tub containing, in carefully laid-down rings, about a hundred and fifty yards of strong line. "But surely they're not going to harpoon those baby whales like they do the big ones?" "Yes, just the same, lad. Come down if you want to have some of the sport." The captain stepped into one boat, and Steve followed, the doctor going off in the other with Jakobsen and the crew. The next minute the word was given to sit fast and be silent, and the boats were rowed rapidly toward the great shoal, which must have numbered a thousand or fifteen hundred, while the water was one mass of foam. "Are these good, these white whales?" said Steve to the captain, as the boat cut through the water, and Johannes stood ready with his harpoon, a very different implement from that provided for the walrus, being barbed so as to form a kind of hook, and, once through, could not be withdrawn from the gutta-percha-like side, of which it would take up a loop tough enough to hold the stoutest sea-horse they could strike. The harpoon used for the white whale was lighter, and had a head which somewhat resembled a half-moon, fitted to work at the end of the shaft, and slight, so that one point of the half-moon would stand in a line with the pole, while the other was secured by a band to the shaft. When the harpoon was driven into the whale, the band which held the second point of the head down to the pole was pushed off in passing through the skin and flesh, while at the first tug upon the line attached to the harpoon the loose head would be drawn crosswise, forming instead of a spear a double barb, which was strong enough to hold in the flesh without being drawn out. The captain was too intent upon the shoal to answer Steve's question, which he repeated. "Good, my lad? Yes. The oil is the purest and best to be had, and very valuable; but of course not to be obtained in such quantities as are procured from the larger whales. I hope we shall get three or four, though. They will help to fill up our tanks."