144 THE BOTTOM OF THE HE A. 



whalebone whale, and the swordfish, though some 

 say the latter is always the aggressor. Sailors report 

 that the balaena, whose vast mass imposes on nearly 

 all the inhabitants of the seas, and who, under his 

 thick cuirass of blubber, may brave with impunity 

 their attacks, seems to be troubled in an extra- 

 ordinary manner when he perceives the swordfish at 

 a distance. According to the same statements, the 

 swordfish makes a rusji at the whale, which dives to 

 the bottom to avoid him. His enemy, keeping close 

 in pursuit, compels him to remount to the surface. 

 The Avhale has no other means of defence but his 

 tail; with a single blow he might annihilate his 

 enemy, if he could only get at him, but the swords- 

 man is quite as alert as his antagonist is sti'ong, and 

 easily eludes his efforts ; he springs into the air and 

 comes down upon the whale, not to pierce him with his 

 sword, but to give him still more dangerous wounds 

 with the serrated edge of that terrible arm. M. de 

 Tessan witnessed an interesting combat of this kind 

 in mid-ocean : the entry in his diary is as follows : — 

 " Lat. 23° 14' N., Long. 108° 49' W. ; 16th Dec, 

 1837. — 1 have had a good view, although at a 

 considerable distance, of a fight between a whale and 

 a swordfish. The latter leaped into the air, to the 

 height of ten or twelv^e feet, made a half-turn, and 

 came down in the water upon thj head of liie whale. 



