A WHALING STORY.*
WE find Mr. Bullen once more among his favourite whales, the whales this time of the North, a more attractive region than that of the Antarctic seas, because, among other reasons, it is inhabited by the Eskimos. There must be a. certain monotony in whaling stories, and it is not every writer of tales, whatever his general ability, who can handle them with success. It is absolutely necessary, of course, to have had some personal experience of the business. This certainly helps us to realise the fierce excitement of this highly specu- lative employment—of two equally qualified Captains, one may meet with uniform success, the other with persistent failure—and it suggests vivid pictures of its discomforts. Mr. Bullen is very graphic in his description of the horrors which assail eyes and nose. Still, this cannot give variety. But here comes in a gift of characterisation which our author possesses in an eminent degree. We are introduced to the hero of Fighting the Icebergs in very unpromising circum- stances. Angus McFie, one of the harpooners to the whaler Phoca,' is making his way home as well as he can under an excessive load of whisky when he stumbles over a bundle which contains a child. The discovery sobers him for the time, and not for the time only but for the rest of his life. Possibly that has a somewhat paradoxical sound. Mr. Bullen succeeds in justifying the situation which he has created. We have the life-story of Angus after this event has changed him, and we recognise in it a genuine human document. He follows the old occupation, but in a new spirit and with higher aims. To begin with, he rises in his profession. Under pressure of his new ambitions and responsibilities he becomes qualified to command. And in all the emergencies which occur the new force in him gives him a vastly enlarged capacity for dealing with men and the facts of life. We must own, however, that Angus the Second—such is the name given to the infant whom Angus the First picked up in a Dundee street—is less convincing. He is pleasant to read about, but he does not touch our hearts. As for the episode of his visit to his friend Grey's home in Petworth, we certainly could wish it away. And is not Mr. Bullen a little hard upon the whakship owners ? A reader can scarcely help looking upon the incredibly mean creatures who figure in that character as meant for samples.
• Fighting ths Icebergs. By Frank T. Bogen. London: James flisbet and Co. Os.]
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