THE SWIMMING OP FISHES. 55 



near the bottom ; at d, represented by a, it is much 

 expanded, and the fish is near the surface. 



The rapidity with which fish swim, and the conse- 

 quent strength which they must exert, are well illus- 

 trated by the whale '. When struck with a harpoon 

 or spear with a line attached thereto, the leviathan of 

 the waters darts down into the deep with such velocity, 

 that if the line were to entangle, it would either snap 

 asunder or overset the boat. Upon a whale being struck, 

 therefore, one man is stationed to give his whole atten- 

 tion to the line running out clear, and another is em- 

 ployed in continually wetting the place it runs over, 

 to prevent the wood from taking fire by the friction. 



On the same principle, but after a much smaller 

 scale, the angler, when he has hooked a large fish, 

 which from its mode of action he infers would easily 

 snap his line asunder were he to pull it up tight, 

 allows his line to run out as the whale-fishers do, and 

 for this purpose he is provided with a long line wound 

 on a reel 2 , or winch, called, by Dame Juliana Barnes, 



Reel. Winch, Pirn, or Troll. 



(i; It maybe well to state that modern naturalists do not rank 

 the whale amongst fishes, because it breathes like land animals, 

 has warm blood, and suckles its young. 



(2) Provincially, Pirn, or troll. 



