VARIETY OF WHALES. 77 



" I twice into the dark abyss was cast, 

 Straining and struggling to retain my breath ; 



Thy waves and billows over me were past ; 

 Thou didst, Lord, deliver me from death." 



Different practised whalemen tell of twelve 

 or fourteen different species of this great sea 

 monster : right, sperm, black-fish, hump-back, 

 r;i/or-back, fin-back, grampus, sulphur-bottom, 

 killer, cow-fish, porpoise, narwhale, scrag whale, 

 and elephant whale. In the attempt to cap- 

 ture one of the latter kind, a New London ship, 

 not long since, lost eleven men, including the 

 first mate. The first four, only, of this cata- 

 logue are much sought after for their oil ; now 

 and then some of the others are taken by chance. 

 The razor-back is sometimes met with one 

 hundred and five feet long, but not so large 

 round as the right whale, bearing about the 

 same comparison to the latter that a razor-faced 

 fellow you now and then meet with among 

 men does to a fair, round alderman. The por- 

 ]>oise, as every one knows, is harpooned from 

 a ship's bow, hauled on board, and its carcass 



n by the name of " sea beef." Its oil, 



