126 WHALING 



ing forward with all due gravity to the polls an orang out- 

 ang, or man of the woods, would the stranger's vote be received, 

 although the Doctor should learnedly and eloquently urge his 

 claims, as he has those of the whale on the present occasion? 

 He breathes the vital air, the Doctor might say, through lungs; 

 he moves erect, etc., has warm blood; the female brings forth 

 the young alive, and rears the bantling at her breasts. The 

 inspectors would say, in reply to all the learning and eloquence 

 of the Doctor, as we do in the case of the whale. "All this 

 indeed is very strange and curious, but still. Doctor, it is a 

 monkey in common acceptation, however naturalists may 

 choose to hail and class him as a brother.'* 



The jury deliberated for fifteen minutes and returned a 

 verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant moved for a new 

 trial in the January term, and the attorneys argued the motion, 

 but the recorder, having learned that there was a petition be- 

 fore the Legislature to amend the law, withheld his decision, 

 until the Legislature in due time passed another act, which 

 declared all oils exempt from the provisions of the earlier act 

 except "liver oil, commonly called fish oil." 



Holding that the Legislature by this new act had indicated 

 that the phrasing of the earlier act made whale oil subject to 

 inspection, the recorder then denied the motion for a new trial. 

 Samuel Judd paid the fine of seventy-five dollars. And James 

 Maurice, whom the new act thus unkindly deprived of by far 

 the most lucrative field for his duties, immediately resigned his 

 office as gauger and inspector. 



The whale was act-ually a fish! 



