HISTORY OF THE WHALE. 103 



one of the most extraordinary sights in the world ; at least 

 I do not remember to have seen many things which have 

 surprised me so much, or made a deeper impression on my 

 memory. Our friend the whale, probably finding the 

 water disagreeably shallow, or perhaps provoked at not 

 being able to disentangle himself from the sharp coral 

 reefs, or from some other reason of pleasure and pain, sud- 

 denly made a leap out of the water. So complete was 

 this enormous leap, that for an instant we saw him fairly 

 up in the air, in a horizontal position, at a distance of at 

 least twenty perpendicular feet over our heads ! While 

 in his progress upwards, there was in his spring some 

 touch of the vivacity with which a trout or salmon shoots 

 out of the water ; but he fell back again on the sea like a 

 huge log thrown on its broadside, and with such a thunder- 

 ing crash as made all hands stare in astonishment, and the 

 boldest held his breath for a time. Total demolition, indeed, 

 must have been the inevitable fate of our party, had the 

 whale taken his leap one minute sooner, for he would then 

 have fallen plump on the boat. The waves caused by the 

 explosion spread over half the anchorage ; nor, if the Lean- 

 der herself had blown up, could the effects have extended 

 much farther." 



" In one of my earliest voyages," remarks Mr. Schor- 

 seby, on another occasion, " I observed a circumstance 

 which excited my highest astonishment. One of the har- 

 pooners struck a whale, it dived, and all the assisting 

 boats had collected round the fast boat before it arose to 

 the surface. The first boat that approached it advanced 

 incautiously. It rose with unexpected violence beneath 

 the boat, and projected it and all the crew to the height of 

 some yards into the air. It fell on its side, and cast 

 aU the men into the water ; one was scjmewhat injured, but 

 the rest escaped." ^ 



Captain Lyons of the Raith of Leith, in 1802, despatched 

 four boats after a large whale on the coast of Labrador, 



