CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF RESPIRATION. 341 



same certainty as any other of the mammalia, 

 placed in the same situation. We observe them 

 continually rising to the surface in order to 

 breathe, under every circumstance of privation 

 or of danger ; and however eagerly they may 

 pursue their prey, however closely they may be 

 pressed by their enemies, a more urgent want 

 compels them, from time to time, to respire air 

 at the surface of the sea. Were it not for this 

 imperious necessity, the Whale, whose enormous 

 bulk is united with corresponding strength and 

 swiftness, would live in undisturbed possession 

 of the widely extended domains of the ocean, 

 might view without dismay whole fleets sent out 

 against him, and might defy all the efforts that 

 man could practise for his capture or destruction. 

 But the constitution of his blood, obliging him 

 to breathe at the surface of the water, brings 

 him within the reach of the fatal harpoon. In 

 vain, on feeling himself wounded, does he plunge 

 for refuge into the recesses of the deep ; the same 

 necessity recurs, and compelling him again to 

 present himself to his foes , exposes him to their 

 renewed attacks, till he falls in the unequal 

 struggle. His colossal form and gigantic strength 

 are of little avail against the power of man, feeble 

 though that power may seem, when physically 

 considered, but which derives resistless might 

 from its association with an immeasurably su- 

 perior intellect. 



