All hands were kept
busily employed preparing for stormy weather--reeving new
running-gear, bending the strongest suit of sails, and looking
well to all the whaling gear.
In this active exercise of real sailor-work, the time, though
long for an ordinary passage, passed quickly and pleasantly away,
so that when we hauled round the massive promontory guarding the
western entrance to Foveaux Straits, we were almost surprised to
find ourselves there so soon.
This, then, was the famous and dreaded Solander whaling ground.
Almost in the centre of the wide stretch of sea between
Preservation Inlet, on the Middle Island, and the western end of
the South, or Stewart's Island, rose a majestic mass of wave-
beaten rock some two thousand feet high, like a grim sentinel
guarding the Straits. The extent of the fishing grounds was not
more than a hundred and fifty square miles, and it was rarely
that the vessels cruised over the whole of it. The most likely
area for finding whales was said to be well within sight of the
Solander Rock itself, but keeping on the western side of it.
It was a lovely day when we first entered upon our cruising
ground, a gentle north-east wind blowing, the sky a deep,
cloudless blue, so that the rugged outline of Stewart's Island
was distinctly seen at its extreme distance from us.
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