CETACEANS. 221 



Some minor mischances with the line endanger in- 

 dividuals, though not the entire boat's crew. A few 

 years ago, Mr. Wilson, the third-mate of the Melantho, 

 met his death in the Eastern Archipelago, by the 

 harpoon-line getting suddenly displaced andcarryinghim 

 out of the boat. The line was instantly cut from the 

 whale, and for some moments the unfortunate man was 

 seen floating, free from entanglement, at a little distance 

 beneath the surface of the sea, but, while endeavours 

 were making to reach him, he sunk. A large shark 

 which accompanied the boat was observed to follow 

 him in his descent, and he was not again seen. 



The ship Seringapatam, while cruising in Timor 

 Straits, in the season of 1836, lost a man under the 

 following circumstances. A boat, occupied in killing a 

 whale, received a severe blow from the flukes of the 

 animal, which passed so close to a boy pulling the after- 

 oar as to graze his breast slightly ; while the man at 

 the tub-oar was either cast out of the boat by the same 

 contact or carried away by the harpoon- line. His 

 body was found entangled in the line, when the latter 

 was hauled into the boat, but life was extinct. It was 

 noticed at the time, that the concussion the boat re- 

 ceived from the whale had cast some coils of line over 

 the shoulders of the deceased, and it is probable that 

 he was hurried from the boat when the whale again 

 took the line ; but his disappearance was so instan- 

 taneous that, in the confusion of the moment, neither 

 his absence nor the events connected with it were 

 immediately noticed by his companions. 



A boat may be much injured, and even destroyed, by 

 a Sperm Whale, as the result of pure accident. This 

 occurred to the South- Seaman Arabella, when cruising 

 off the Society Islands, in 1836. A whale " milled," 



