found no place in their methods.

The reports I had always heard of the laziness prevailing on
board whale-ships were now abundantly falsified. From dawn to
dark work went on without cessation. Everything was rubbed and
scrubbed and scoured until no speck or soil could be found;
indeed, no gentleman's yacht or man-of-war is kept more
spotlessly clean than was the CACHALOT.

A regular and severe routine of labour was kept up; and, what was
most galling to me, instead of a regular four hours' watch on and
off, night and day, all hands were kept on deck the whole day
long, doing quite unnecessary tasks, apparently with the object
of preventing too much leisure and consequent brooding over their
unhappy lot. One result of this continual drive and tear was
that all these landsmen became rapidly imbued with the virtues of
cleanliness, which was extended to the den in which we lived, or
I verily believe sickness would have soon thinned us out.

On the fourth day after leaving port we were all busy as usual
except the four men in the "crow's-nests," when a sudden cry of
"Porps! porps!" brought everything to a standstill. A large
school of porpoises had just joined us, in their usual clownish
fashion, rolling and tumbling around the bows as the old barky
wallowed along, surrounded by a wide ellipse of snowy foam. All
work was instantly suspended, and active preparations made for
securing a few of these frolicsome fellows. A "block," or
pulley, was hung out at the bowsprit end, a whale-line passed
through it and "bent" (fastened) on to a harpoon. Another line
with a running "bowline," or slip-noose, was also passed out to