CETACEANS. 213 



CHAPTER VI. 



DANGERS OF THE SPERM FISHERY. 



Comparison between the disposition and weapons of the Greenland- 

 whale and Cachalot Mischievous temper often displayed by the 

 latter whale Its modes of defence and their frequently fatal 

 effects to whalers Melancholy instances Fighting whales De- 

 plorable fate of the American South-Seaman Essex and her crew 

 Instances of individual Cachalots notoriously dangerous to attack 

 Accidents to boats, independent of a vicious temper on the part of 

 the whales they attack Forbearance of sharks towards wrecked 

 whalers. 



THE amount of hazard incurred in the Greenland 

 and Sperm Whale Fisheries may be considered as 

 nearly equal : the difficulties attending upon an inhos- 

 pitable climate in the one, being in a great measure 

 counterbalanced by the superior activity and general 

 powers of the whale pursued, in the other. The True- 

 Whale of the Arctic and Southern Seas is, as is well 

 known, a gentle and inoffensive creature, which seldom, 

 if ever, exhibits a decidedly combative temper, and 

 whose only defensive organ is the tail ; the Cachalot, 

 on the other hand, is not only better armed than the 

 True- Whale, in possessing a formidable weapon at either 

 extremity of its enormous body, but also more fre- 

 quently displays a disposition to employ those weapons 

 offensively, and in a manner at once so artful, bold, 

 and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the 

 most dangerous to attack of all the known species of 

 the whale-tribe. 



