at any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wondrous habitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect posture in his boat, even when pitched about by the most riotously perverse and cross-running seas. still more strange to see him giddily perched upon the loggerhead itself, under such circumstances. but the sight of little flask mounted upon gigantic daggoo was yet more curious; for sustaining himself with a cool, indifferent, easy, unthought of, barbaric majesty, the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmoniously rolled his fine form. on his broad back, flaxen-haired flask seemed a snow-flake. the bearer looked nobler than the rider.