portion to its strength to do mischief. There seems to be an analogy between its manners and those of the elephant. They are both the strongest and the largest animals in their respective elements; neither offer injury, but are terrible when provoked to resentment. The fin-fish indeed, in some measure, differs from the great whale in this particular, as it subsists chiefly upon herrings, great shoals of which it is often seen driving before it. Yet even the swallow of this fish is not very large, if compared to the cachalot tribe; and its ravages are but sports in comparison. The stomach and intestines of all these animals, when opened, seldom have any thing in them, except a soft unctuous substance, of a brownish colour; and their excrements are of a shining red.

As the whale is an inoffensive animal, it is not to be wondered that it has many enemies, willing to take advantage of its disposition, and inaptitude for combat. There is a small animal, of the shellfish kind, called the Whale-louse, that sticks to its body, as we see shells sticking to the foul bottom of a ship. This insinuates itself chiefly under the fins; and whatever efforts the great animal makes, it still keeps its hold, and lives upon the fat, which it is provided with instruments to arrive at.

The sword-fish, however, is the whale's most terrible enemy. "At the sight of this little animal,” says Anderson, "the whale seems agitated in an

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extraordinary manner; leaping from the water as if with affright: wherever it appears, the "whale perceives it at a distance, and flies from "it in the opposite direction. I have been my

self," continues he, "a spectator of their terrible

"encounter. The whale has no instrument of "defence except the tail: with that it endeavours to "strike the enemy; and a single blow taking place "would effectually destroy its adversary: but the "sword-fish is as active as the other is strong, and easily avoids the stroke; then bounding into the r air, it falls upon its great subjacent enemy, and "endeavours not to pierce with its pointed beak, "but to cut with its toothed edges. The sea all "about is seen dyed with blood, proceeding from "the wounds of the whale; while the enormous "animal vainly endeavours to reach its invader, "and strikes with its tail against the surface of the "water, making a report at each blow louder than "the noise of a cannon."

There is still another and more powerful enemy, called, by the fishermen of New England, the Killer. This is itself a cetaceous animal, armed with strong and powerful teeth. A number of these are said to surround the whale, in the same manner as dogs get round a bull. Some attack it with their teeth behind; others attempt it before; until, at last, the great animal is torn down, and its tongue is said to be the only part they devour when they have made it their prey. They are said to be of such great strength, that one of them alone was known to stop a dead whale that several boats were towing along, and drag it from among them to the bottom.

But of all the enemies of these enormous fishes, man is the greatest: he alone destroys more in a year than the rest in an age, and actually has thinned their numbers in that part of the world where they are chiefly sought. The great resort

of these animals was found to be on the inhospitable shores of Spitzbergen; where the distance of the voyage, the coldness of the climate, the terrors of the icy sea, and, still more, their own formidable bulk, might have been expected to protect them from human injury. But all these were but slight barriers against man's arts, his courage, and his necessities. The European ships, soon after the improvement of navigation, found the way into those seas; and as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Biscayneers were in possession of a very considerable trade to the coasts of Greenland. The Dutch and the English followed them thither, and soon took that branch of commerce out of their hands. The English commenced the business about the beginning of the seventeenth century; and the town of Hull had the honour of first attempting that profitable branch of trade. But, at present, it seems upon the decline, as the quantity of fish are so greatly reduced by the constant capture for such a vast length of time. It is now said, that the fishers, from a defect of whales, apply themselves to the seal-fishery; yet, as these animals are extremely timorous, they will soon be induced to quit those shores, where they meet such frequent disturbance and danger. The poor natives of Greenland themselves, who used to feed upon the whale, are diminishing, in proportion as their sustenance is removed; and, it is probable, that the revolution of a few years will see that extensive coast totally deserted by its inhabitants, as it is already nearly deserted by the whales.

The art of taking whales, like most others, is much improved by time, and differs in many re

spects from that practised by the Biscayneers, when they first frequented the icy sea. But as the description of their methods is the least complicated, and consequently the easiest understood, it will be best suited to our purpose.

For this navigation, the Biscayneers, in favourable seasons, fitted out thirty ships, of two hundred and fifty tons each, with fifty choice men a-piece, and a few boys. These were stored with six months provision; and each ship had its boats, which were to be serviceable when come to the place of duty. When arrived at the part where the whales are expected to pass to the southward, they always keep their sails set, and a sailor is placed at the mast-head, to give information when he spies a whale. As soon as he discovers one, the whole crew are instantly in employment: they fit out their boats, and row away to where the whale was seen. The harpooner, who is to strike the fish, stands at the prow of the boat, with a harpoon or javelin in his hand, five or six feet long, pointed with steel like the barb of an arrow, of a triangular shape. As this person's place is that of the greatest dex. terity, so also it is of the greatest danger: the whale sometimes overturns the boat with a blow of its tail, and sometimes drives against it with fury. In general, however, the animal seems to sleep on the surface of the water; while the boat approaching, the harpooner stands aloft, and, with his harpoon tied to a cord of several hundred fathom long, darts it into the animal, and then rows as fast as possible away. It is some time before the whale seems to feel the blow; the instrument has usually pierced no deeper than the fat, and that being in

sensible, the animal continues for a while motionless; but soon rouzed from its seeming lethargy, as the shaft continues to pierce deeper and deeper into the muscular flesh, it flies off with amazing rapidity. In the mean time, the harpoon sticks in its side; while the rope which is coiled up in the boat, and runs upon a swivel, lengthens as the whale recedes, but still shows the part of the deep to which it has retreated. The cord is coiled up with great care; for such is the rapidity with which it runs off, that if it was but the least checked, as it yields with the animal's retreat, it would infallibly overset the boat, and the crew would go to the bottom. It sometimes happens also, that the rapidity with which it runs over the swivel at the edge of the boat, heats it, and it would infallibly take fire, did not a man stand continually with a wet mop in his hand, to cool the swivel as the cord runs. The whale having dived to a considerable depth, remains at the bottom, sometimes for near half an hour, with the harpoon in its body, and then rises to take breath, expecting the danger over: but the instant it appears, they are all with their boats ready to receive it, and fling their harpoons into its body: the animal again dives and again rises, while they repeat their blows. The ship follows in full sail, like all the rest, never losing sight of the boats, and ready to lend them assistance: the whole ocean seems died in blood. Thus they renew their attacks, till the whale begins to be quite enfeebled and spent, when they plunge their longer spears into various parts of its body, and the enormous animal expires. When it is dead, to prevent it from sinking, they tie it with a strong iron chain