The Scholar's Sailing Log, June to October, A Four-Thousand-Li Retrospective of the Far North Coast

"In mid-August, we reached Great Whale Island and saw great whales in herds. It was an incomparably magnificent sight! The smaller North Sea whales and orcas were only half a Longship in length, with strange white markings, like cloud spirits in the sea. The larger great-winged whales (humpback whales) and gray whales had spread-out twin wings and long, protruding mouths, as if they were eagle warriors of the ocean... Main God! The most majestic of all were a kind of giant whale with great heads (sperm whales)! They were much longer than an entire Longship, like mountains cruising through the sea, able to overturn a great ship with ease!... Main God bless us! Fortunately, these great-headed whales were many, many, many times gentler in nature than the terrifying giant beasts of the Black Abyss in myth. At most, they would follow beside the Longships and swim along curiously for a while, then splash water all over the sky and turn away in boredom..."

"Main God witness! So many whales gathered around Great Whale Island because these waters held extremely abundant schools of fish! Schools of salmon clustered into colorful balls of fish—blood-red ones, flashing silver ones, and pink ones like pale tree branches. I tried them all, and still felt the red-fleshed salmon were the richest and most delicious... Vast swaths of black cod were like gray-black Fire Stone, and also like willow branches hanging into the water, drifting everywhere in clumps. This black-skinned Cod was very tasty. I could eat two jin in one breath... Besides these, there were all kinds of Lobster, crabs, and flounder lurking on the seabed. I loved eating them all; they were just more troublesome to prepare..."

"Praise the Main God! Following the warm ocean current, the exploration fleet discovered a natural good harbor