Whenever the word "whale" was mentioned in the hearing of these men their eyes glistened with excitement.
[Illustration: Captain Slocum working the _Spray_ out of the Yarrow River, a part of Melbourne harbor.] We spent three days in the quiet cove, listening to the wind outside.
Meanwhile Captain Young and I explored the shores, visited abandoned miners' pits, and prospected for gold ourselves.
Our vessels, parting company the morning they sailed, stood away like sea-birds each on its own course.

The wind for a few days was moderate, and, with unusual luck of fine weather, the _Spray_ made Melbourne Heads on the 22d of December, and, taken in tow by the steam-tug Racer, was brought into port.
Christmas day was spent at a berth in the river Yarrow, but I lost little time in shifting to St.Kilda, where I spent nearly a month.
The _Spray_ paid no port charges in Australia or anywhere else on the voyage, except at Pernambuco, till she poked her nose into the custom-house at Melbourne, where she was charged tonnage dues; in this instance, sixpence a ton on the gross.

The collector exacted six shillings and sixpence, taking off nothing for the fraction under thirteen tons, her exact gross being 12.70 tons.

I squared the matter by charging people sixpence each for coming on board, and when this business got dull I caught a shark and charged them sixpence each to look at that.

The shark was twelve feet six inches in length, and carried a progeny of twenty-six, not one of them less than two feet in length.