ZOOLOGY. — pMYSTICETUS. 467 



after I had harpooned it, to the depth of 400 fa- 

 thoms, with the average velocity of seven or eight 

 miles per hour. The usual rate at which whales 

 swim, however, even when they are on their passage 

 from one situation to another, seldom exceeds four 

 miles an hour ; and though, when urged by the 

 sight of any enemy, or alarmed by the stroke of a 

 harpoon, their extreme velocity may be at the rate 

 of eight or nine miles an hour ; yet we find this 

 speed never continues longer than for a few mi- 

 nutes, before it relaxes almost to one-half. Hence, 

 for the space of a few minutes, they are capable of 

 darting through the water, with the velocity almost 

 of the fastest sliip under sail, and of ascending with 

 such rapidity as to leap entirely out of the water. 

 This feat they sometimes perform as an amuse- 

 ment apparently, to the high admiration of the dis- 

 tant spectator ; but to the no small terror of the un- 

 experienced fishers, who, even under such circum- 

 stances, are often ordered, by the foolhardy har- 

 pooner, to " pull away" to the attack. Sometimes 

 the whales throw themselves into a perpendicular 

 posture, with their heads downward, and, rearing 

 their tails on high in the air, beat the water with 

 awful violence. In both these cases, the sea is 

 thrown into foam, and the air filled with vapours ; 

 the noise, in calm weather, is heard to a great dis- 

 tance; and the concentric waves produced by the con- 

 cussions on the water, are communicated abroad to 



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