MAMMALS OF BERMUDA. 149 



war]); it bled freely. It came to the shore the next day, but was not 

 captured. The cub will yield about 5J barrels of oil." 



The adult whales, when struck near shore, often lead their captors a 

 long chase — sometimes as much as 7 or 8 miles out to sea — and even 

 then the warp has to be cut to save the boat. But when taken they 

 amply recompense their lucky captors for their trouble, yielding in 

 some cases from 60 to 70 barrels of oil. When these large whales are 

 towed to shore the vast quantity of blood escaping from their wounds 

 attracts numbers of sharks, some of very large size, which mutilate the 

 body and devour much of the meat. This well-known habit of the 

 sharks is sometimes turned to profitable account by the colored boat- 

 men, who take what is left of the body of a whale, after the process of 

 "flinching" has been gone through, outside the reefs, and let it remain 

 as a bait. Several boats will join in one of these expeditions, having 

 experienced spearsmen on board, who, at every opportunity, spear a 

 large shark which, in its turn, is converted into oil which is of particu- 

 lar commercial value. 



There are some curious habits indulged in by this species of whale, 

 known to the islanders, but perhaps none can be accounted so singular 

 and remarkable as that of the animal leaping completely out of water 

 to the height of several feet. A naval officer has placed on record an 

 instance of this extraordinary circumstance as follows: " While we were 

 lying on our oars, in a cutter belonging to the Leander, frigate, in Mur- 

 ray's Anchorage, off' Saint George's Island, during the winter of 1802-3, 

 we beheld one of the most extraordinary sights in the world. A whale 

 which had by some means got inside the reef, and was endeavoring to 

 extricate itself from its uncomfortable position, and perhaps provoked at 

 not being able to disentangle itself from the sharp coral reefs, or for 

 some other reason, suddenly made a spring out of the sea. So complete 

 was this enormous leap, that for an instant he was seen fairly up in the 

 air, in a horizontal iiosition, at a distance from the surface, not much 

 short I should think of half his own breadth. His back, therefore, 

 must have been at least twenty feet in perpendicular height over our 

 heads. While in its progress upwards, there really appeared in its 

 spring some touch of the vivacity which belongs to a trout or salmon 

 shooting out of the water. The whale, however, fell back again on the 

 sea, with all the clumsiness imaginable, like a huge log thrown on its 

 broadside; and with such a thundering crash as made all hands stare in 

 astonishment. Total demolition, indeed, must have been the fate of 



