A VETETIAN WHALER. 81 



the most wonderful strength and activity in 

 these whales, greater than he ever saw before in 

 ( itlin- right or sperm. He was once fast to a 

 large cow whale, which was in company with a 

 small one, a full-grown calf. They kept together, 

 and after a time the captain hauled his boat up 

 between them. When they were both within 



- h, he shoved his lance " into the life " of the 

 cow, at which she threw her flukes and the 

 small part of her body completely over the head 

 of the boat without touching it (although they 

 were half- drowned with the water she scooped up), 

 and the full weight of the blow, intended for 

 tin. 1 boat, fell upon the back of the other whale. 

 It sunk immediately, going down bent nearly 

 double, and, the captain thinks, must have been 

 killed by the blow. The same person has seen 

 a stout hickory pole, three inches in diameter, 

 and six feet long, broken into four pieces by a 

 blow from a whale's tail, and the pieces sent 

 fixing twenty feet into the air, and that, too, 

 when no other resistance was offered than that 

 of the water upon which it floated. 



The first whale this man struck in that fish- 



