23G CONJECTURES ABOUT TUE AVHALE. 



mate, wlio in no wise lacks energy, would not liave 

 cut ; but, under the circumstances, he acted with 

 discrimation in witlidrawing the boats whilst tliero 

 was a chance of tlieir doins; so with safety. Ko 

 doubt, had he remained attached to the whale, it 

 would have been as difficult for us to find our boats 

 the succeeding day as it was to find the carcass of 

 the fish, which, despite our utmost endeavors — tho- 

 roughly going over the ground — we never after- 

 wards saw. 



How it was that this whale sustained life so long, 

 whilst the vital current was swiftly escaping from 

 his sj'stem, it is difficult to account for. He was 

 lanced in the same place as other whales we had 

 taken, and which expired in the course of several 

 hours. It was done, too, by men who were no 

 novices, either in handling tlie lance, or in combat- 

 ing the whale, i^ot a few shook their heads, myste- 

 riously ; and one, in a spirit of confidence, broadly 

 stated to me, that the creature was not a whale, but 

 Lucifer himself, who had assumed this form to puz- 

 zle mankind ; and hence he accounted for the tena- 

 city of life displayed. This opinion, of course, I 

 could not subscribe to; but I found it futile to attempt 

 to satisfy my superstitious shipmate that all might 

 be produced by natural causes. My opinion being, 

 that the whale was of such a prodigious size, (every 

 man who was in the boats stating liim to have been 

 the largest of the cachelot species they had ever seen,) 

 and his vitals were covered with so thick a coat of 

 blubber, that tlie lances were of insufficient length 

 to deal a mortal wound. This view of the matter, 

 after many arguments, pro and con^ was finally 



