* THE WHALE. 127 



back, like the segment of a sphere, deliberately 

 rounds it away towards the extremity, throws its 

 tail out of the water, and then disappears. 



In their usual conduct, whales remain at the sur- 

 face to breathe, about two miautes, seldom longer; 

 during which time, they " blow" eight or nine 

 times, and then descend for an interval usually of 

 five or ten minutes, but sometimes, when feed* 

 ing, fifteen or twenty. The depth to which they 

 commonly descend, is not known, though, from the 

 eddy occasionally observed on the water, it is evi- 

 dently at times, only trifling. But when struck, the 

 quantity of line they sometimes take out of the boats, 

 in a perpendicular descent, affords a good measure 

 of the depth. By this rule, they have been known 

 to descend to the depth of an English mile, and with 

 such velocity, that instances have occurred, in which 

 whales have been drawn up by the line attached, 

 from a depth of 700 or 800 fathoms, and have been 

 found to have broken their jaw-bones, and some- 

 times crown-bone, by the blow struck against the 

 bottom. Some persons are of opinion, that whales 

 can remain under a field of ice, or at the bottom of 

 the sea in shallow water, when undisturbed, for 

 many hours at a time. Whales are seldom found 

 sleeping, yet, in calm weather, among ice, instances 

 occasionally occur. 



The food of the whale consists of various species 

 of actiniae, cliones, sepise, medusae, caneri, and 



