like an angry cat, strolled about among them, a strand of rope-
yarns in his hand, which he wielded constantly, regardless where
he struck a man. They fell about, sometimes four or five at
once, and his blows flew thick and fast, yet he never seemed to
weary of his ill-doing. It made me quite sick, and I longed to
be aft at the wheel again. Catching sight of me standing
irresolute as to what I had better do, he ordered me on the
"look-out," a tiny platform between the "knight heads," just
where the bowsprit joins the ship. Gladly I obeyed him, and
perched up there looking over the wide sea, the time passed
quickly away until eight bells (four o'clock) terminated my
watch. I must pass rapidly over the condition of things in the
fo'lk'sle, where all the greenies that were allowed below, were
groaning in misery from the stifling atmosphere which made their
sickness so much worse, while even that dreadful place was
preferable to what awaited them on deck. There was a rainbow-
coloured halo round the flame of the lamp, showing how very bad
the air was; but in spite of that I turned in and slept soundly
till seven bells (7.20 a.m.) roused us to breakfast.

American ships generally have an excellent name for the way they
feed their crews, but the whalers are a notable exception to
that good rule. The food was really worse than that on board
any English ship I have ever sailed in, so scanty also in
quantity that it kept all the foremast hands at starvation
point. But grumbling was dangerous, so I gulped down the dirty
mixture mis-named coffee, ate a few fragments of biscuit, and
filled up (?) with a smoke, as many better men are doing this
morning. As the bell struck I hurried on deck--not one moment
too soon--for as I stepped out of the scuttle I saw the third