688 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



was shining, and the Arctic summer night was almost as light as 

 day, and deep into the night we followed her. Down she went, 

 for the sixth or seventh time, but fatigue was getting the better 

 of her. She was weakening, while, with all the fatigue, our 

 spirits, and strength, too, were kept up by the excitement. At 

 last, when we had been nearly twenty-four hours on the chase, ] 

 got another harpoon in her. This seemed to madden her afresh. 

 Another plunge, which had nearly carried us with her ; but this 

 time she did not stay down more than ten or twelve minutes. 

 Up she came once more, the water all around covered with blood, 

 and we knew she was done for. Three or four lances were hurled 

 into her ponderous bulk, and at last our exertions were rewarded 

 by seeing her roll over on her side. She was dead. We bent on 

 another strong line, and soon towed her to a floe. But we found 

 ourselves, with our prize, a good nine miles from the ship. We 

 could not, therefore, save the blubber, but we made a good 

 haul of balleen, with which we loaded our boat to its utmost ca- 

 pacity, and then dragged her, with ^er heavy cargo, the w r hole 

 distance over the ice to the ship, which is what I call a fair day's 

 work." 



But not every attack upon the whale is as successful as was the 

 one Capt. Tyson relates. The spermaceti whale, which grows to 

 the length of seventy-five feet, is really a dangerous animal, for 

 it not only uses its flukes to dash -\ boat to pieces, but it is not 

 slow to attack with its well-armed jaws. These whales usually go 

 in herds of twenty or thirty, and the whole herd have been known 

 to rush to the assistance of a wounded comrade, in which case 

 they will even sink a sailing ship. 



THE NORWHAL. 



THE seas of Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and Greenland are the 

 domain of the norwhal, or sea-unicorn, a cetacean quite as 

 strange, but not so fabulous, as the terrestrial animal which figures 

 in the arms of England. The use of the enormously spirally- 

 wound tusk projecting from its upper jaw, and from which it 

 derives its popular name, has not been clearly ascertained, some 

 maintaining that.it is a weapon of defense, while others suppose 



