306 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



and in their external instruments of motion, to the 

 other inhabitants of the deep, they are still, from 

 the conformation of their respiratory organs, de- 

 pendent on another element. If a Seal, a Porpoise, 

 or a Dolphin were confined, but for a short time, 

 under the surface of the M^ater, it would perish with 

 the 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 cor- 

 responding strength and swiftness, would live in 

 undisturbed possession of the widely extended do- 

 mains 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 cap- 

 ture 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 phy- 

 sically considered, but deriving resistless might 

 from its association with an immeasurably superior 

 intellect. 



