One huge fellow passed directly beneath the bowsprit, and Mr.Thompson let drive the harpoon with all the strength and energy he possessed.

We hauled upon the line with vigor alas! It required but little exertion to haul it in; the mate had missed his mark.
In a few minutes another of these portly inhabitants of the deep came rolling along with a rowdy, swaggering gait, close to the surface of the water.

The mate, cool and collected, took a careful aim, and again threw the iron, which entered his victim, and then shouted with the voice of a Stentor, "Haul in! Haul in!" And we did haul in; but the fish was strong and muscular, and struggled hard for liberty and life.

In spite of our prompt and vigorous exertions, he was dragged under the brig's bottom; and if he had not been struck in a workmanlike manner, the harpoon would have drawn out, and the porpoise would have escaped, to be torn to pieces by his unsympathizing companions.

As it was, after a severe struggle on both sides, we roused him out of the water, when the mate called for the jib down-haul, with which he made a running bowline, which was clapped over his tail and drawn tight; and in this inglorious manner he was hauled in on the deck.
The porpoise is a fish five or six feet in length, weighing from one hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds.