140 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. V. 



conquerors, with an empire absolute and destructive. 

 They are not contented with repelling any attack, but 

 dash with fury against everything which appears to 

 resist them. They combat with intrepidity, cover the 

 sea with blood, and pursue their prey with a bitterness 

 and pertinacity that has scarcely any parallel. In these 

 attacks they are distinguished by the extreme rapidity 

 of their movements : they are said to appear and dis- 

 appear like lightning; they advance and retreat with 

 the velocity of an arrow, and the eye can with difficulty 

 follow their varied evolutions. In the combat, fear, fury, 

 and pain draw from them such profound groans, or 

 piercing hissing cries, that their congeners are attracted 

 in crowds from all sides, continue the fight with fresh 

 ardour and audacity, and stain the waters with blood 

 often to the distance of many leagues.'* * We know 

 not upon what authority the industrious editor, from 

 whom we have now transcribed this passage, has relied 

 for his information ; but, admitting that the account may 

 be somewhat highly coloured, it will readily be per- 

 ceived that these monsters are the Feres of the natatorial 

 quadrupeds, and as formidable in the ocean, as the lion 

 and tiger are upon dry land. The narwal, although a 

 much smaller animal, is the most completely armed of 

 the whole order. He is, in fact, the elephant of the 

 ocean, being furnished with tusks, or teeth, sometimes 

 twenty feet long, twisted spirally, excessively hard, and 

 pointed, and capable of inflicting instant death or the most 

 dangerous wounds. These and the cachalots are entirely 

 carnivorous, feeding upon fish, and even upon young 

 whales. Even when the narwals, which generally go 

 in troops, meet a full-grown whale, they are sure to 

 give him battle, and a bloody contest ensues, of which 

 they are not unfrequently themselves the victims. The 

 dolphins, long celebrated by poetic fabulists as gentle 

 and social to man, are, in reality, a cruel and blood- 

 thirsty race, preying upon the weaker inhabitants of 

 the deep with great voracity, and following ships for no 

 *_Griff, Cuv. vol. iv. p. 473. 



