204 ZOOLOGY. 



gun-wale, threatening an inundation which she appears 

 only to evade by her speed. 



About this time, the officer in command resigns the 

 steer-oar to the harpooner, and takes his station in the 

 bow of the boat, where, armed with the lance, he avails 

 himself of every opportunity to haul up close to the 

 whale and dart his weapon into its body. 



Finding flight in the horizontal direction insufficient 

 for escape, the whale endeavours to elude his pur- 

 suers by " sounding," or descending perpendicularly to 

 a great depth; but this attempt is equally ineffectual 

 with the first, and after a short interval he reappears 

 on the surface, the boat again approaches, and the 

 attack with the lance is renewed, until exhausted by 

 loss of blood, and his strenuous endeavours to escape, 

 the animal becomes perceptibly more feeble in his 

 movements, the sea for some distance around is crim- 

 soned with his blood, and the spout, (also mingled with 

 blood,) as it rises at each aspiration, is scattered con- 

 spicuously in the air, like shreds of scarlet cloth. After 

 the slow pace of the whale, and his general air of 

 languor, as well as the jets of dark blood, cast from his 

 spiracle scarce higher than the crests of the waves, 

 would lead to the idea that his efforts are at an end, 

 he again draws the attached boat rapidly over the water 

 and the contest appears to be renewed; but this is 

 merely the last struggle of the dying Cachalot, or, as it 

 is termed, " the flurry," and hurrying about, beating 

 the waves with his tail, the creature takes a circuitous 

 rather than a direct course then turns on his side his 

 lower jaw falls and the " monarch of the flood' 5 floats 

 a lifeless mass, over which the waves beat with a low 

 and confused surf. 



