It was so unusual a thing to see a fish turn towards the spot where he was struck, that Roswell did not know what to make of this manoeuvre in his bull.  At first he supposed the animal meant to make fight, and set upon him with its tremendous jaws; but it seemed that caprice or alarm directed the movement; for, after coming within a hundred yards of the boat, the creature turned and commenced sculling away to windward, with wide and nervous sweeps of its formidable flukes.  It is by this process that all the fish of this genus force their way through the water, their tails being admirably adapted to the purpose.  As the men had showed the utmost activity in hauling in upon the line, by the time the whale went off to windward again they had got the boat up within about four hundred feet of him.

Now commenced a tow, dead to windward, it being known that a fish, when struck, seldom runs at first in any other direction.  The rate at which the whale moved was not at the height of his speed, though it exceeded six knots.  Occasionally, this rate was lessened, and in several instances his speed was reduced to less than half of that just mentioned.  Whenever one of these lulls occurred, the men would haul upon the line, gradually getting nearer and nearer to the fish, until they were within fifty feet of his tremendous flukes.  Here, a turn was taken with the line, and an opportunity to use the lance was waited for.

Whalers say that a forty-barrel bull of the spermaceti sort is much the most dangerous to deal with of all the animals of this species.  The larger bulls are infinitely the most powerful, and drive these half-grown creatures away in herds by themselves, that are called ‘pads,’ a circumstance that probably renders the young bull discontented and fierce.  The last is not only more active than the larger animal, but is much more disposed to make fight, commonly giving his captors the greatest trouble.  This may be one of the reasons why Roswell Gardiner now found himself towing at a reasonable rate, so close upon the flukes of a hundred-barrel whale.  Still, there was that in the movements of this animal, that induced our hero to be exceedingly wary.  He was now two leagues from the schooners, and half that distance from the other boats, neither of which had as yet fastened to a fish.  This latter circumstance was imputed to the difficulty the different officers had in making their selections, cows, of the spermaceti breed, when they give suck, being commonly light, and yielding, comparatively, very small quantities of head-matter and oil.  In selecting the bull, Roswell had shown his judgment, the male animal commonly returning to its conquerors twice the profit that is derived from the female.