nostalgia. Mother Carey's chickens, little birds resembling swallows,
began to flit around us, skimming closely along the waves. There is a
fiction among the sailors that nobody ever saw one of these birds
alight or found its nest. Whoever harms one is certain to bring
misfortune upon himself and possibly his companions. A prudent
traveler would be careful not to offend this or any other nautical
superstition. In case of subsequent danger the sailors might remember
his misdeed and leave him to make his own rescue.

Nearing the Asiatic coast we saw many whales. One afternoon, about
cigar time, a huge fellow appeared half a mile distant. His blowing
sounded like the exhaust of a western steamboat, and sent up a
respectable fountain of spray. Covert pronounced him a high pressure
affair, with horizontal engines and carrying ninety pounds to the
inch.

After sporting awhile in the misty distance, the whale came near us.
It was almost calm and we could see him without glasses. He rose and
disappeared at intervals of a minute, and as he moved along he rippled
the surface like a subsoil plough on a gigantic scale. After ten or
twelve small dives, he threw his tail in air and went down for ten
minutes or more. When he reappeared he was two or three hundred yards
from his diving place.

Once he disappeared in this way and came up within ten feet of our
bows. Had he risen beneath us the shock would have been severe for
both ship and whale. After this manoeuvre he went leisurely around us,
keeping about a hundred yards away.

"He is working his engines on the slow bell," said our engineer, "and