landsmen how to find their way aloft, and do something else
besides hold on to anything like grim death when they got there.

At last, one beautiful day, the boats were lowered and manned,
and away went the greenies on their first practical lesson in the
business of the voyage. As before noticed, there were two
greenies in each boat, they being so arranged that whenever one
of them "caught a crab," which of course was about every other
stroke, his failure made little difference to the boat's
progress. They learned very fast under the terrible imprecations
and storm of blows from the iron-fisted and iron-hearted
officers, so that before the day was out the skipper was
satisfied of our ability to deal with a "fish" should he be lucky
enough to "raise" one. I was, in virtue of my experience, placed
at the after-oar in the mate's boat, where it was my duty to
attend to the "main sheet" when the sail was set, where also I
had the benefit of the lightest oar except the small one used by
the harpooner in the bow.

The very next day after our first exhaustive boat drill, a school
of "Black Fish" was reported from aloft, with great glee the
officers prepared for what they considered a rattling day's fun.

The Black Fish (PHOCAENA SP.) is a small toothed whale, not at
all unlike a miniature cachalot, except that its head is rounded
at the front, while its jaw is not long and straight, but bowed.
It is as frolicsome as the porpoise, gambolling about in schools
of from twenty to fifty or more, as if really delighted to be
alive. Its average size is from ten to twenty feet long, and
seven or eight feet in girth, weight from one to three tons.