THE WHALE. 125 



By means of the tail principally, the whale ad- 

 vances through the water. The greatest velocity 

 is produced by powerful strokes against the water, 

 impressed alternately upward and downward; but a 

 slower motion, it is believed, is elegantly produced, 

 by cutting the water laterally and obliquely down- 

 ward, in a manner similar to that in which a boat is 

 forced along, with a single oar, by the operation of 

 skulling. The fins are generally stretched out in an 

 horizontal position; their chief application seems to 

 be, the balancing of the animal, as the moment life is 

 extinct, it always falls over on its side, or turns upon 

 its back. They appear also to be used in bearing 

 off their young, in turning, and giving a direction 

 to the velocity produced by the tail. 



Bulky as the whale is, and inactive, or indeed 

 clumsy as it appears to be, one might imagine that 

 all its motions would be sluggish, and its greatest 

 exertions productive of but little celerity. The fact, 

 however, is the reverse. A whale extended mo- 

 tionless at the surface of the sea, can sink in the 

 space of five or six seconds or less, beyond the 

 reach of its human enemies. Its velocity along the 

 surface, or perpendicularly, or obliquely down- 

 ward, is the same. I have observed a whale de- 

 scending after I had harpooned it, to the depth of 

 400 fathoms, with the average velocity of seven or 

 eight miles per hour. The usual rate at which 

 whales swim, however, even when they are on 

 their passage from one situation to another, seldom 



