MATERNAL AFFECTION OF WHALES. 91 



peril of her inexperienced offspring, as the boat 

 drew near, she would run round her calf in de- 

 creasing circles, and try to decoy it seaward, 

 showing the utmost uneasiness and anxiety. 

 Reckoning well that, the calf once struck, the 

 dam would never desert it, the only care of the 

 harpooner was to get near enough to bury his 

 tremendous weapon deep in its ribs, which was 

 no sooner done than the poor animal darted 

 away with its anxious dam, taking out an hun- 

 dred fathoms of line. It was but a little time, 

 however, before, being checked, and the barb 

 lacerating its vitals, it turned on its back, and, 

 displaying its white belly on the surface of the 

 water, it floated a motionless corpse. 



The huge dam, with an affecting maternal 

 instinct more powerful than reason, never quit- 

 ted the body till a cruel harpoon entered her 

 own sides; then, with a single tap of her tail, 

 she cut in two one of the boats, and took to 

 flight, but returned soon, exhausted with loss of 

 blood, to die by her calf, evidently, in her last 

 moments, more occupied with the preservation 

 of her young than herself. 



