November 22d. The 'William and Anne', Captain Buncker, returned after
having been more than three weeks out, and putting into Broken Bay. This is
the ship that had killed the fish in which Melville shared. Buncker had met
with no farther success, owing, he said, entirely, to gales of wind; for
he had seen several immense shoals and was of opinion that he should have
secured fifty tons of oil, had the weather been tolerably moderate. I asked
him whether he thought the whales he had seen were fish of passage. "No,"
he answered, "they were going on every point of the compass, and were
evidently on feeding ground, which I saw no reason to doubt that they
frequent." Melville afterwards confirmed to me this observation. December
3rd, the 'Mary Anne' and 'Matilda' again returned. The former had gone to
the southward, and off Port Jervis had fallen in with two shoals of whales,
nine of which were killed, but owing to bad weather, part of five only were
got on board. As much, the master computed, as would yield thirty barrels
of oil. He said the whales were the least shy of any he had ever seen, "not
having been cut up".
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