of the Greenland Whale, 17 



back of the whale, therefore, the harpoon is plunged obliquely 

 into this powerful tendinous network ; which generally holds it 

 so firmly, that I believe it is almost as common for the well- 

 tempered iron to be broken as to be withdrawn ; but, in de- 

 stroying the creature, I may add, that its most mortal part, 

 ■where the lances are afterwards applied, is a little below, and 

 posterior to the origin of the fin, where the heart and the larger 

 vessels are situated. 



The greatest supply of oil, yielded by a single whale, of which 

 I have been enabled to obtain a well-authenticated account, 

 was the enormous quantity of one hundred and seventeen 

 butts, or about forty-three tons, which was removed from a 

 whale, struck by a person of the name of Pashby, who was 

 liarpooner to the Fanny, whaler, of Hull ; and as the blubber 

 is supposed to weigh about one-third of the whole, we here con- 

 template an animal body weighing no less than one hundred 

 and twenty-nine tons. 



Another whale, struck by a harpooner, from whom I 

 received the account, yielded ninety-seven butts of blubber, 

 and had whalebone which measured thirteen feet and a half in 

 length, which is the length of the specimens of whalebone now 

 before us ; forty butts of oil, however, are considered a good 

 average produce. 



The necessity for this wonderful provision in the Greenland 

 whale, to which I have last adverted, the abundance of its oil, 

 is rendered more apparent, when it is known that the real spe- 

 cific gravity of the muscles of this creature is rather greater 

 than that of the muscles of quadrupeds ; but, by means of its 

 oil, so nicely is its body balanced in the surrounding fluid, that 

 it scarcely exceeds the specific gravity of the water. But this 

 prodigious quantity of oil not only thus materially decreases its 

 specific gravity, in which capacity it has been aptly compared 

 to a cork-jacket, but it seems to have been intended as the 

 most perfect of all the various kinds of clothing, with which the 

 mammalia have been gifted ; for, being a very bad conductor 

 away of heat, it thus preserves the warm bodies of the whale 

 kind from becoming chilled by the low temperature of the sur- 

 rounding fluid. In diving birds, it is no less interesting to ob- 

 serve, that the same admirable precaution is had recourse to, 

 JULY— SEPT. 1828. C 



