32 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



read many tales of whaling in books with won- 

 derful illustrations of boats being hurled into the 

 air or crushed by these monstrous fish. 



The Queen of Sheba exclaimed after seeing the 

 wonders of Solomon, " Behold, the half was not 

 told me." So, when near the Canary Islands, in 

 the North Atlantic, the second mate, looking 

 ahead with his binoculars, called out, " There she 

 spouts ! " and I saw, about three miles off, a jet 

 of steam rising up from the sea, followed by 

 another and another at short intervals, and, nearing 

 the spot, heard the " blows " like very loud sighs, 

 and saw two great whales roll lazily near the 

 surface close to the ship, the oil from their sides 

 smoothing the waves in their vicinity, and the 

 stately movements of their tails causing eddies 

 to form immediately behind them, I applied the 

 Sheban ruler's observation to myself. 



But what are whales? and what is their flesh 

 and blubber like ? Well, we know very little 

 about them, in spite of the great advance made in 

 zoology and navigation since the days of Aristotle 

 and Pliny. Where and when they multiply we 

 cannot exactly tell, nor how long they live. 

 They do not come of age until they are twenty 

 years old, and they may exist for a hundred years, 

 or even, as some people think, for centuries. 



