It was barely possible that the chain might have been slipped or accidentally lost by some vessel; but probabilities were strong to the contrary. The evident uneasy feeling of the natives, when we were about taking up our anchor, was a significant circumstance. Could we have let go the other anchor, and taken time to investigate the matter by underrunning the small chain, we should, no doubt, have found positive evidence of treachery, and might have shed light upon the fate of some long-missing vessel. We ran to leeward of the island and shaped our course to the northward and westward, not sighting any other island of the Caroline group. In a few days we parted company with the Leonidas, and went our way alone toward the Japan cruising-ground. CHAPTER XX. ON JAPAN.--ORMSBEE'S PEAK.--WHALING INCIDENTS.--A YANKEE TRICK. The words, "on Japan," as used by sperm whalemen, do not necessarily indicate the near vicinity of the islands of that name, but indicate all that part of the North Pacific Ocean to the eastward of them, even to the meridian of 180 degrees, between the parallels of twenty-five and forty degrees. The "Japan Sea," lying between the islands and the main coast of Asia, had not, at the time of which I write, been penetrated by whalers, though it has since become well known as a right whaling ground. The season "on Japan," as usually made, was from April or May to September, and the usual route was to run well to the westward in the early part of the season, and then work back again, making the autumn port at one of the Sandwich Islands; a group which has derived great importance from its position, seeming to have been providently dropped midway in the North Pacific, as a "half-way house," between the two continents, as well as a haven of refuge for the belated whalemen from all the northern cruising grounds.