THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 247 



than usual. One would be apt to suppose that a 

 creature so huge and powerful, would be little the 

 subject of fear or alarm; but, in truth, it is a re- 

 markably timid animal; the approach even of a 

 boat causing him to descend with precipitation. It 

 is graciously ordained, that the creatures which are 

 formed to contribute to man's comfort or sustenance, 

 though many of them are more powerful than he, 

 should be impressed with such a fear of him, as 

 in general to be incapable of using their superior 

 strength to his disadvantage. "And the fear of 

 you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast 

 of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air ; upon 

 all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the 

 fishes of the sea ; into your hand are they deliver- 

 ed."* But this huge animal has other enemies 

 than man : equally with the Greenland Whale, it 

 is subject to the assaults of some of the larger 

 predaceous fishes ; the Sword-fish and the Saw-fish 

 plunge into his body their formidable snouts, and the 

 " Thresher" leaps upon him from above. Mr. Beale 

 records the following incident, as reported to him 

 by an eye-witness, a gentleman on whose veracity he 

 could rely. "He stated that he had been observing 

 a Sperm Whale during the time it had remained 

 at the surface to breathe, which afterwards went 

 through the evolution of peaking its flukes in the 

 usual manner, and disappeared. As it was a large 

 Whale, and as he knew it was likely to remain under 

 water for a considerable time, he scarcely expected 

 to see it again. However, in this he was mistaken ; 



* Gen. ix. 2. 



