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MANNING THE WOODEN WALLS OF OLD ENGLAND.
One morning, soon after daybreak, as I was lying asleep in my berth, I was awakened by a trampling on deck and loud shouts.

Aware that something unusual had occurred, I lost no time in hastening to the scene of action.

Ere I reached the deck, I heard the word "porpoises" uttered in a loud key by one of the sailors, which explained the cause of the excitement.
The mate, with sparkling eye and rigid features, in which determination was strongly stamped, as if resolved "to do or die," was busily engaged in fitting a line to the harpoon, which had been sharpened and prepared for use some days before.

I cast my eye to windward, and saw the ocean alive with fish.