The posterior part of a white whale. The entire animal is snow white except for a narrow edging of brown on the flukes and flippers. The young of this species are entirely brown. ] Next morning I was awakened by the regular lap, lap, lap of the water against the bows, and knew that the boat was already under way. Crawling down from my narrow shelf I wriggled through the hatchway to the deck above. It was a perfect morning, the sun already an hour high and a fresh breeze coming from the west. We were headed down the river for an island four miles distant, about the lower end of which, with the glass, a large school of whales could be seen playing back and forth in the tide rips. I stretched out on top of the cabin drinking in the fresh salt air and enjoying the warm sunshine which was doubly welcome after the raw wind of the day before. As we neared the upper end of the island, I heard a confused murmur of sounds, and with a question turned to the porpoise hunter. “_Myack_,” he said, and I saw that the shore was lined with a great flock of eider ducks. He threw the tiller over and as we drew in toward the land one or two stragglers rose and then, with a perfect roar of wings, the whole flock launched itself into the air. It was a magnificent sight as the great birds whirled past us, the black and white plumage of the males flashing in the sunlight. I watched them through my glasses until, with a sudden graceful curve, they swung down clear to the water and were lost in the blue wisps of fog which still hung in the air. We sailed along abreast of the island and dropped anchor in a perfect rock-walled harbor at its lower end. Not far away in the tide rip a school of white whales were darting back and forth after the fleeing capelan. My excitement was at fever heat, for since the water was fairly smooth I was to try my luck at shooting. When the canoe was lifted over the side, we slid away from the yawl, out of the harbor, and into the upper end of the tide rip, with hardly a sound save the drip of water from the paddle blades. On the gunwale in front rested the end of the heavy shotgun loaded with a lead ball, and at the right lay the slender harpoon, the line neatly coiled and fastened to a bulky cedar float. [Illustration: “A big white fellow slipped under only a hundred feet away, headed directly for us.” ]