468 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



a considerable extent. Sometimes the whale shakes 

 its tremendous tail in the air, which, cracking like a 

 whip, resounds to the distance of two or three miles. 



When it retires ^rom the surface, it first lifts its 

 head, then plunging it under water, elevates its 

 back like the segment of a sphere, deliberately 

 rounds it away towards the extremity, throws its 

 tail out of the water, and then disappears. 



In their usual conduct, Vfhales remain at the sur- 

 face to breathe,^ about two minutes, seldom longer ; 

 during which time, they "blow" eight or nine times, 

 and then descend for an interval usually of five or 

 ten minutes ; but sometimes, when feeding, fifteen 

 or twenty.- The depth to which they commonly 

 descend, is not known, though, from the '* eddy" 

 occasionally observed on the water, it is evidently, 

 at times, only trifling. But, when struck, the quan- 

 tity of line they sometimes take out of the boats,^ in 

 a perpendicular descent, affords a good measure of 

 the depth. By thi» rule, they have been known tO' 

 descend to the depth of an English mile ; and with 

 such velocity, that instances have occurred^ in which 

 whales have been drawn up by the line attached, 

 from a depth of 700 or 800 fathoms, and have been 

 found to have broken their jaw-bones, and some- 

 times crown-bone, by the blow struck against the 

 bottom. Some persons are of opinion, that whales 

 can remain under a field of ice, or at the bottom of 

 the sea, in shallow water, when undisturbed, for 



