﻿296 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



dred and fifty-two of these animals, not one of which exceeded 

 sixty feet in length. The sperm whales are somewhat larger, 

 being frequently found seventy-five feet in length. 



The usual rate at which a whale swims is about three or four 

 miles an hour. They are capable of rushing through the water, in 

 time of danger, with the velocity of the fastest ship under sail, and 

 of ascending from the bottom of the ocean with such rapidity ns to 

 leap entirely out of the water. Sometimes they throw themselves 

 into a perpendicular position, with their heads downwards, and 

 moving their tremendous tails on high in the air, beat the water 

 with awful violence, which, cracking like a whip, resounds to the 

 distance of two or three miles. They feed upon shrimps and minute 

 crabs, lobsters, and sea snails, which they gather from the surface 

 of the water while swimming. 



The proceedings in capturing the whale are highly interesting. 

 A ship of about three hundred and fifty tons is required, and a crew 

 of fifty men. The ships generally arrive in the polar seas about the 

 end of April. As soon as they reach the haunts of the whale the 

 crew must be every moment on the alert, keeping watch day and 

 night. The instant a whale is seen by the look-out, he gives no- 

 tice to the crew, and the first boat is put off, followed immediately 

 by a second. Each boat has a harpooner and other subordinate 

 officers, and is provided with an immense quantity of rope, carefully 

 coiled and stowed away in various parts of the boat, the different parts 

 being spliced together so as to form a line of sometimes a mile in 

 length. To the end is attached the harpoon. The boat is now 

 rowed towards the whale with the greatest possible speed, in the 

 deepest silence, cautiously avoiding giving alarm ; and sometimes a 

 circuitous route is adopted in order to approach it from behind. 

 Having reached within a few yards, the harpooner darts his instru- 

 ment into the giant, who, in the surprise and agony of the moment, 

 makes a convulsive effort to escape. This is the moment of danger, 

 for the boat is exposed to the most violent blows of the whale's head 

 and fins, and still more of its tail, which sometimes sweeps the air 

 with such tremendous fury, that both boat and men are exposed to 

 a common destruction. 



The moment that the wounded whale disappears, a flag is dis- 



