114 l>AJiGERS IN 



then have fallen plump on the hoat. The waves 

 caused by the explosion spread over half the an- 

 chorage ; nor, if the Leander herself had blown up, 

 could the effects have extended much farther." 



After preparing the foregoing narrative for the 

 press, Captain Hall, in order to fortify himself by 

 the highest authority in these matters, wrote to Mr. 

 Scorseby, detailing the fact, and inquiring if he had 

 ever witnessed any thing of the sort. This elicited 

 the following reply, " I have much pleasure in being 

 able to speak to the point in attestation of the not 

 infrequency of the exhibition of the high leaps 

 which you witnessed, however ignorance might 

 charge it as ' very like a whale.' Whilst engaged 

 in the northern whale fishery, I witnessed many 

 similar exploits of whales of forty or fifty feet in 

 length, forgetting their usual gravity, and making 

 these odd exhibitions of their whole form from head 

 to tail. Certainly, I have several times seen whales 

 leap so high out of water, as to be completely in 

 air, which, reckoning from the surface of the back, 

 could scarcely be less than twenty feet, and possibly 

 might be more. I have at different times pursued 

 these froHcksome fish, but they have always es- 

 caped." 



" In one of my earliest voyages," remarks Mr. 

 Scorseby, on another occasion, " I observed a circum- 

 stance which excited my highest astonishment. One 

 of the harpooners struck a whale, it dived, and all 

 the assisting boats had collected round the fast boat 

 before it arose to the surface. The first boat that 



