the same neighbourhood. It is gifted with great speed. Now you know as well as I, monsieur, that nature would not have bestowed this attribute of speed upon the animal were it not for some useful purpose; so if the beast exist, he is far away from here by this time.”
I had no reply to this. Evidently we were groping in the dark, but how else were we to proceed? So our chances of success were limited. However, no one despaired of ultimate success, and not a sailor on board had bet against the narwhal and his next appearance.
We crossed the tropic of Cancer in the 105° of longitude on the 20th July, and on the 27th of the same month we passed the equator on the 110° meridian. The frigate now directed her course towards the west, into the centre of the Pacific. Commodore Farragut thought, and with reason, that the monster would most likely frequent the deep waters at a distance from any land, which it feared to approach, “without doubt because there was not sufficient water for it,” as the master remarked. The frigate passed by the Marquesas and the Sandwich Islands, crossed the tropic of Cancer at 132° longitude, and sailed towards the China seas.
We had at last reached the scene of the monster’s latest gambols, and as a matter of fact, we lived for nothing else. Our hearts palpitated fearfully, and laid the foundation of future aneurism. The whole ship’s company were suffering from a nervous excitement, of which I can give no idea. No one ate, no one slept. Twenty times a day a mistake or an optical delusion of some sailor perched upon the yards, gave rise to intolerable startings and emotions, twenty times repeated, which
