THE COMMON WHALE. 85 



whales have no voice, hut in Mowing they make a 

 loud noise. The vapour they discharge is ejected 

 to the height of some yards, and appears at a distance 

 like a puff of smoke ; they blow strongest, densest, 

 and loudest when in a state of alarm, or when they 

 first appear on the surface after being a long time 

 down. The depth to which they commonly descend 

 is not accurately known; but, when struck, the 

 quantity of line they sometimes take out of the 

 boats, in perpendicular descent, affords a good 

 measure of the depth. By this rule they have been 

 known, according to Scorseby, to descend about a 

 mile, and with such velocity, that instances have 

 occurred in which whales have been drawn up by 

 the attached line from a depth greater than the 

 highest mountains in Scotland, and have been found 

 to have broken their jaws, and sometimes their 

 crown-bone, by the blow struck against the bottom. 

 Whales are seldom found sleeping ; yet instances of 

 it have occured among ice in calm weather. 



The food of these animals, so vast and strong, is 

 too remarkable not to claim a moment's attention. 

 They have no teeth, and hence we at once perceive 

 they cannot prey on the smaller of their own kind, 

 or on the larger fishes ; and their throat is so small, 

 that they could not dispose of a morsel which is 

 swallowed by an ox. The well provided pasture 

 grounds, however, as they may be called, exhibit, to 

 the contemplation of the curious, one of the most 

 wonderful manifestations of Beneficence and Power. 

 A very considerable portion of those spaces in which 



