248 A HISTORY OF 



these animals, when opened, seldom have any thing in them exce r >. 

 a soft unctuous substance of a brownish colour ; and their excrement^ 

 are of a shining red. 



As the whale is an inoffensive animal, it is not to be wondered tha 

 it has many enemies, willing to take advantage of its disposition, and 

 inaptitude for combat. There is a small animal, of the shell-fish kind, 

 called the Whale-louse, that sticks to its body, as we see shells stick- 

 ing to the foul bottom of a ship. This insinuates itself chiefly under 

 the fins ; and whatever efforts the great animal makes, it still keeps 

 its hold, and lives upon the fat, which it is provided with instruments 

 to arrive at. 



The sword-fish, however, is the whale's most terrible enemy. " At 

 the sight of this little animal," says Anderson, " the whale seems agi- 

 tated in an extraordinary manner ; leaping from the water as if with 

 affright : wherever it appears, the whale perceives it at a distance, and 

 flies from it in the opposite direction. I have been myself," con- 

 tinues he, " a spectator of their terrible encounter. The whale has 

 no instrument of defence except the tail ; with that it endeavours to 

 strike the enemy ; and a single blow taking place, would effectually 

 destroy its adversary ; but the sword-fish is as active as the other is 

 strong, and easily avoids the stroke ; then bounding into the air, it 

 falls upon its great subjacent enemy, and endeavours not to pierce 

 with its pointed beak, but to cut it with its toothed edges. The sea 

 all about is soon dyed with blood, proceeding from the wounds of the 

 whale : while the enormous animal vainly eadeavours to reach its in- 

 vader, and strikes with its tail against the surface of the water, 

 making a report at each blow louder than the noise of a cannon." 



There is still another and more powerful enemy called by the fish' 

 ermen of New-England, the Killer. This is itself a cetaceous ani- 

 mal, armed with strong and powerful teeth. A number of these are 

 said to surround the whale, in the same manner as dogs get round a 

 bull. Some attack it with their teeth behind ; others attempt it be- 

 fore ; until, at last, the great animal is torn down, and its tongue is 

 said to be the only part they devour when they have made it their 

 prey. They are said to be of such great strength, that one of them 

 alone was known to stop a dead whale that several boats were towing 

 along, and drag it from among them to the bottom. 



But of all the enemies of these enormous fishes, man is the great- 

 est : he alone destroys more in a year than the rest in an age, and 

 actually has thinned their numbers in that part of the world where 

 they are chiefly sought. The great resort of these animals, was found 

 to be on the inhospitable shores of Spitzbergen ; where the distance 

 of the voyage, the coldness of the climate, the terrors of the icy sea, 

 and, still more, their own formidable bulk, might have been expected 

 to protect them from human injury. But all these were but slight 

 barriers against man's arts, his courage, and his necessities. The Eu- 

 ropean ships, soon after the improvement of navigation, found the way 

 'iito those seas ; and as early as the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury, the Biscayneers were in possession of a very considerable trade to 

 the coasts of Greenland. The Dutch and the English followed them 

 thither, and soon took that branch of commerce out of their hands. 

 The English commenced the business about the beginning of the 



