A Long Encounter With A Whale

Mr. Joseph W. Mead, of this city, is now on board the barque Hercules on a wlialing voyage. His ship was off St. Helena on the 28th oí October, 1881, f rom which place he sends an interesting letter to one of his relatives in Poughkeepsie. Fruru it we make the following extracta: - "On the 6th of June last we raised whales and got them all in favorable positi.ous, when we lowered our boats and iu a short time our second mate struek oue. In a few minutes after, the whale caught the boat about in the quarter and comp'letely chewed it up. Mr. Luce, the chief mate, when he saw our signal from the ship, sent a boat and had the crew picked up, took .the line, and still had the whale last. The third mate also carne up and went on the whale threo times. The fourth time the whale caught and mashed his boat int o flrewood. The steerer was killed, but the rest of the crew were saved. lu the meantime, the boats did not dare to go near the wounded whale, but iired at it from a 'distance with guns. About this time we received help from a ship called the Milton, whioh sent two boats to the rescue, for we were in a very weak condition. Before you could hardly think itpossible, however, the Milton's boats were both mashed and their crew swimming ii the water. They were soon reseued by our boats. The boats hung about the whale until dark, when we out the line and iet the huge monster go. The next morning, however, we saw Min again and took another hold of him, and about 5 o'clock in the afternoon we succeeded in despatching him. It was the largest whale taken in this section for naany years, and made us 150 barrels of oil. lts lencth was 60 feet and jaws 19 íeet."-