THK SWIMMING OF FISHES. 55 



near the bottom ; at d, represented by a, it is much 

 expanded, and the fish is near the surface. 



The rapidity with which fish swim, and the conse- 

 quent strength which they must exert, are well illus- 

 trated by the whale'. A^'^heu struck with a harpoon 

 or spear with a line attached thereto, the leviathan of 

 the waters darts down into the deep with such velocity, 

 that if the line were to entangle, it would either snap 

 asunder or overset the boat. U])on a whale being struck, 

 therefore, one man is stationed to give his whole atten- 

 tion to the line running out clear, and another is em- 

 ployed in continually wetting the place it runs over, 

 to prevent the wood from taking fire by the friction. 



On the same principle, but after a much smaller 

 scale, the angler, when he has hooked a large fish, 

 which from its mode of action he infers would easily 

 snap his Une asunder were he to pull it up tight, 

 allows his line to run out as the whale-fishers do, and 

 for this purpose he is provided with a long line wound 

 on a reel", or winch, called, by Dame Juliana Barnes, 



Reel, Winch, Pirn, or Troll- 



(U It may be well to iitate that modern naturalists do not rank th2 

 whale amongst fishes, because it brtathes like land animals, has wanu 

 blootl, and suckles its young. 



(a) Provincially, Pirn, cr ti-vil. 



