HISTORY OF TITE WHALE FISHERY. 109 
and some species of flat-fish, but it also frequently gives chase 
to the porpoise, and perhaps the whale would consider the 
grampus as his most formidable enemy, were it not for 
the persecutions of man. Pliny gives us a fine description of 
the conflicts which arise between these monsters of the deep. 
At the time when the whale resorts to the bays to cast its young, 
it is attacked by the grampus, who either lacerates it with his 
dreadful jaws, or in rapid onset endeavours to strike in its ribs, 
as with a catapult. The terrified whale knows no other way to 
escape from these furious attacks, than by interposing a whole 
sea between him and his enemy. But the grampus, equally 
wary and active, cuts off his retreat, and drives the whale into 
narrower and narrower waters, forcing him to bruise himself on 
the sharp rocks, or to strand upon the shelving sands, nor 
ceases his efforts until he has gained a complete victory. 
During this fight the sea seems to rage against itself, for though 
no wind may be stirring the surface, waves, such as no storm 
creates, rise under the strokes of the infuriated combatants. 
While the Emperor Claudius was visiting the harbour of 
Ostium, a grampus stranded in the shallow waters. The back 
appeared above the surface of the sea, and resembled a ship with 
its keel turned upwards. The Emperorcaused nets to be stretched 
across the mouth of the harbour to prevent the animal’s escape, 
and then attacked it in person with his pretorian guards. The 
soldiers surrounding the monster in boats, and hurling their in- 
glorious spears, exhibited an amusing spectacle to the populace. 
That man ventures to pursue the leviathans of the deep 
among the fogs and icebergs of the Arctic seas, and is generally 
successful in their capture, may surely be considered as one of 
the proudest triumphs of his courage and his skill. 
The breast of the first navigator, says Horace, was cased with 
triple steel; but of what adamantine materials must that man’s 
heart have been formed, whose steadfast hand hurled the first 
harpoon against the colossal whale ? 
History has not preserved his name; like the great warriors 
that lived before Agamemnon, he sank into an obscure grave 
for want of a Homer to celebrate his exploits. We only know that 
the biscayans were the first civilised people that in the four- 
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