NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 299 



" Whilst they were laying off, however, quietly reconnoitering the salient 

 and weak points of attack, nie asuring with their eyes the length and breadth 

 of their immense adversary, and impatiently awaiting the collection and 

 arrival of the materials of war, the tide, which unfortunately was flooding, 

 lifted him, just before the preparations for the attack could be completed, 

 from his perilous bed in the sand* and with a prodigious effort he threw him- 

 self off the bar, bounded into the channel, and in an instant was out of sight. 



" Nothing more was seen of him, and it was feared he had made his way 

 out of the capes, and to the bergs and ice floes of more congenial latitudes, 

 after his uncomfortable experiences of shallow water. But on Wednesday 

 evening, the 11th hist., he was again descried making his way, like a small 

 propeller, straight up North River, rising every ten or fifteen minutes, throw- 

 ing graceful jets d'eau into the air more than thirty feet high, and sporting on 

 the surface of the water. When eff Burgh Westra, the residence of Dr. P. A. 

 Taliaferro, that gentleman, with his brother, Edwin Taliaferro, Esq., accompa- 

 nied by Mrs. , who, carried away by the excitement, insisted (under 



threat of having her own boat manned) upon joining the expedition, and wit- 

 nessing the sport, as well as sharing the peril. Having hastily collected all 

 the fire-arms at baud, consisting of shot guns and five-shooters, and having 

 fastened a sword to a staff for a lance, they pushed off with a trusty crew of 

 negro oarsmen, in a launch of twenty feet in length, and rowed boldly for the 

 huge monster. He arose usually to breathe and spout water about every ten 

 or fifteen minutes, and then descended, reappearing at the expiration of that 

 time between a quarter and half a mile distant from the place of descent. 



" Closely calculating the distance at which he would rise, and pulling in 

 the direction in which he disappeared, they succeeded in measuring so accu- 

 rately the time and space, that the third time he came to the surface after 

 they started, they found themselves within a few feet of him, as he lay with 

 his whole length expose 1 upou the water. 



" To pour a heavy charge of buckshot into his flank was with Dr. T. the 

 work of an instant, when off the creature darted like lightning, pursued with 

 a hearty cheer by the boat's crew. 



: ' Again and again he rose, and again and again was the gallant boat with 

 her undaunted crew close beside him, pulling for their lives to head him, and 

 cut off his retreat from the river to the bay. For some moments, at one time, 

 he was seen swimming under the water, with his immense mouth, wide 

 enough to have taken in and crushed the frail boat, extended, and making 

 directly for her ; but a few quick and lusty back strokes of the oars put her 

 beyond peril, and as he arose within ten feet of her quarter, a second dis- 

 charge of ball and buck drove him frantic upon a bar, and the blood- tinged 

 column of water which he spouted iuto the air told the story of a mortal 

 wound. 



" Pulling the boat within a few feet of his body, far enough off to escape a 

 blow from his tail, Dr. T. courageously leaped overboard into five feet water, 

 and boldly attacked him with an impromptu lance, made of an old Toledo 

 blade which had done service in several wars. Though mortally wounded, 

 however, and attacked sword in hand, the whale would not yield himself van- 

 quished and a prisoner without another struggle, and, to the dismay of the 

 assailants and the crowds which had by this time collected on the beach, by 

 a convulsive and violent effort he floundered into deep water, and made a 

 straight run for the bay. But he was now too much exhausted to escape, and 

 the boat pulling fearlessly upon him, headed him within a few hundred yards, 

 and drove him again upon the shore, upou the estate, and near the residence 

 of Gen. Taliaferro, where cables and ropes were fastened to his tail, and he 

 was dragged to the shore by a force of over one hundred and fifty ne roes, 

 who had assembled to witness the sport, and despatched, after a most ex- 

 citing contest, from first to last, of over three hours. 



" On dissection, the stomach was found to contain nothing but crabs. 

 I860.] 



ii 



