96 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES, 



whale. We were not so fortunate as to light 

 upon any. 



The gigantic denizens of the deep are sub- 

 ject both to disease and deformity, some having 

 been taken that were entirely 'blind, both eyes 

 being completely disorganized, and the orbits 

 occupied by fungous masses protruding con- 

 siderably; rendering it certain that the whale 

 must have been deprived of vision for a con- 

 siderable space of time, yet not so as to inca- 

 pacitate him for feeding, blind whales being 

 found as fat as the seeing ones. 



The deformity referred to is a crookedness 

 of the lower jaw, which old whalers say is caused 

 by fighting. Sperm whales have been seen to 

 light by rushing, head first, one upon the other, 

 their mouths at the same time wide open, their 

 object appearing to be to seize their opponent 

 by the lower jaw. For this purpose they fre- 

 quently turn themselves on the side, and become, 

 as it were locked together, their jaws crossing each 

 other, and in this manner they strive vehemently 

 for the mastery, with a force compared to which 

 not even Milton's wars of the angels 



