90 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



sively. Its immediate recourse is to flight, ex- 

 cept when it has young to look out for, and then 

 it is bold as a lion, and manifests an affection 

 which is itself truly affecting. It grazes quietly 

 through the great deep, never using its prodigi- 

 ous strength to seize or lord it over other inhab- 

 itants of the seas, but strains its insect-like food 

 through its admirably contrived apparatus of 

 bone and hair, that strikingly evinces His bene- 

 ficence and wise design, 



" Whose creating hand 

 Nothing imperfect or deficient left 

 Of all that he created." 



It makes one think of the couplet we used to 

 read when boys, in the New England Primer : 



" "Whales in the sea 



God's voice obey. 



Even the mute fish that swim the flood, 

 Leap up, and mean the praise of God." 



I have heard of one of these whales with a 

 cub, when driven into shoal water, being seen 

 to swim around its young, and sometimes to 

 embrace it with her fins, and roll over with it in 

 the waves, evincing the tenderest maternal soli- 

 citude. Then, as if aware of the impending 



