The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries | Page 2

284 Winter Work on Inland Streams }
Clamming on the Mississippi } 296 Barge-loads of Mussels }
Landing the Paddle-fish 306
Climbing up the Wheel } 318 Biggest Fresh-water Fish in America }
The Blue Wing at the Fish Trap 328
Hatchery, Woods Hole } 336 Residence, Woods Hole }
"What Shall We Get this Time?" } 346 "Here's a New One, Boys!" }
Catching Swordfish with Rod and Reel 356
Clammer Raking for Quahaugs } 370 Oysterman Tonging }
Testing the Ocean's Crop 378

THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FISHERIES
CHAPTER I
MAROONED BY A WHALE
"There she blows!"
Colin Dare, who was sitting beside the broken whale-gun and who had
been promised that he might go in the boat that would be put out from
the ship if a whale were sighted, jumped to his feet at the cry from the
'barrel' at the masthead.
"Where?" he shouted eagerly, rushing to the rail and staring as hard as
he could at the heaving gray waters of the Behring Sea.
"There she blo-o-ows!" again cried the lookout, in the long echoing call

of the old-time whaler, and stretching out his hand, he pointed to a spot
in the ocean about three points off the starboard bow. Colin's glance
followed the direction, and almost immediately he saw the faint cloud
of vapor which showed that a whale had just spouted.
"Do you suppose that's a whalebone whale, Hank?" asked the boy,
turning to a lithe Yankee sea-dog with a scraggy gray beard who had
been busily working over the mechanism of the whale-gun.
"No sayin'," was the cautious reply, "we're too fur off to be able to tell
yet a while. How fur away do you reckon we be?"
"A mile or two, I suppose," Colin said, "but we ought to catch up with
the whale pretty soon, oughtn't we?"
"That depends," the gunner answered, "on whether the whale's willin'
or not. He ain't goin' to stay, right there."
"But you usually do catch up?"
"If it's a 'right' whale we generally try to, an' havin' steam to help us out
makes a pile o' difference. Now, in the ol' days, I've seen a dozen
whales to wind'ard an' we couldn't get to 'em at all. By the time we'd
beaten 'round to where they'd been sighted, they were gone."
"Well, I hope this is a 'right' whale," Colin said with emphatic
earnestness.
"Why this one 'specially?" the old sailor asked.
"I heard Captain Murchison say that if we came up with a whale while
the gun was out of order, rather than lose a chance, he would send a
boat out in the old-fashioned way."
"An' you want to see how it's done, eh?"
"I got permission to go in the boat!" the boy answered triumphantly,
"and I just can't wait."

"It's the skipper's business, I suppose, but I don't hold with takin' any
chances you don't have to," was the gruff comment, "an' if you'll take
the advice of an old hand at the game you'll keep away."
"But I want to go so much, Hank," came the reply.
"What for?"
"I'm trying to get Father's permission to join the Bureau of Fisheries,"
explained the boy, "and when Captain Murchison started on this trip, I
begged him to let me come. The captain is an old friend of his."
"I'd rather you went in somebody else's boat than mine, then," was the
ungracious response.
"Why, Hank!" exclaimed Colin in surprise, "what a thing to say!"
The old sailor nodded sagely.
"The skipper don't know much more about boat-whalin' than you do,"
he said, "that was all done away before his time. He's willin' to tackle
anythin' that comes along, all right, but a whalin' boat is just about the
riskiest thing that floats on water."
"How's that, Hank?" asked the boy. "I always thought they were
supposed to be so seaworthy."
"They may be seaworthy," was the grim reply, "but I never yet saw a
shipwright who'd guarantee to make a boat that'd be whaleworthy."
"But I'm sure I've read somewhere that whales never attacked boats,"
persisted Colin.
"Mebbe," rejoined the gunner, "but I don't believe that any man what
writes about whalin' bein' easy, has ever tried it in a small boat."
"Well," said the boy, "isn't it true that the only time a whale-boat is
smashed up is when the monster threshes around in the death-flurry and
happens to hit the boat with his tail?"

"Not always."
"You mean a whale does sometimes go for a boat, in spite of what the
books say?"
"I never heard that whales cared much about literatoor," the sailor
answered with an attempt at rough humor, "an' anyway, most o' them
books you've been readin', lad, are written about whalin' off