100 THE. INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
Scoresby has seen it return to banquet again on the whale at the 
very spot where it received its wounds. The heart, as is fre- 
quently the case with gluttons, bears no proportion to its vast 
capacity of stomach ; for it is very small, and performs only six 
or eight pulsations in a minute, continuing its beating for some 
hours after having been taken out of the body. The body also, 
though separated into any number of parts, gives evidence of life 
for a similar length of time. It is therefore so difficult to kill, 
that it is actually unsafe to trust the hand in its mouth though 
the head be separated from the body. 
Strange to say, though the whale-fishers frequently slip into 
the water where sharks abound, Scoresby never heard an instance 
of their having been attacked by one of these voracious monsters. 
Perhaps they are loth to attack man, looking upon him as their 
best purveyor. 
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BIRAMBARADAAAAARREAREAIII 
Saw of the Saw-fish. 
Fishermen relate that the whale and saw-fish, whenever they 
come together, engage in deadly combat; the latter invariably 
making the attack with inconceivable fury. 
“The meeting of these champions proud 
Seems like the bursting thunder cloud.” 
The whale, whose only defence is his tail, endeavours to strike 
his enemy with it; and asingle blow would prove mortal. But the 
saw-fish, with astonishing agility, shuns the tremendous stroke, 
bounds into the air, and returns upon his huge adversary, plung- 
ing the rugged weapon with which he is furnished into his back. 
The whale is still more irritated by this wound, which only 
becomes fatal when it penetrates the fat ; and thus pursuing and 
pursued, striking and stabbing, the engagement only ends with 
the death of one of the unwieldy combatants. 
Even the white-bear is said to attack the whale, watching his 
