HABITS OF THE WHALE. ltd 



threw a rope round his body. The carcase of the fish was now 

 suspended entirely by the poor fellow's body, which was consequently so 

 dreadfully extended that there was some danger of his being drawn 

 asunder. But such was his terror of being taken under water, and not 

 indeed without cause, for he never could have risen again, that notwith- 

 standing the excruciating pain he suffered, he constantly cried out to his 

 companions to 'haul away the rope.' He remained in this dreadful state 

 until means were adopted for hooking the kreng with a grapnel, and 

 drawing it back to the surface of the water. His escape was singularly 

 providential, for had he not caught hold of the boat as he was sinking, 

 and met with such prompt assistance, he must infallibly have perished." 



CACHELOT FISHERY. 



The Cachelot, or as it is more usually called, the Spermaceti Whale, 

 is more slender and possesses much greater activity than the common 

 whale; it remains a much longer time under water when struck by the 

 harpoon; but is an object of greater anxiety to catch, because of its 

 greater value, from it possessing those two precious drugs, spermaceti 

 and ambergris. The whole oil of the fish is easily converted into the 

 former, and the ambergris is formed in a bag three or four feet long, in 

 round lumps from one to twenty pounds weight; but it is only in the 

 oldest and largest Cachelots, that these drugs can be extracted. 



HABITS OF THE WHALE. 



With all its enormous physical strength, the whale is singularly gentle 

 and harmless ; so remarkably so indeed, that it has been characterized 

 by those who have had the best opportunities of observing it, as a stupid 

 animal. The absence of ferocity is, however, no proof of this, and, 

 indeed they are indicative of a great degree of sagacity. It exhibits the 

 usual instinctive sense of danger when it perceives the approach of its 

 natural enemy man ; and both before and after it has been struck with 

 the harpoon, it most commonly adopts the very best expedients open to 

 it for a chance of escape. If a field of ice be near, for instance, it makes 

 for the water under it, whither it cannot be followed by the boat, and 

 even when it tries to release itself merely by a precipitate plunge 

 downwards into the sea, it would be difficult to say how it could act 

 more wisely, with a view to snap the line to which it has got attached. 

 If these efforts were not met on the part of the crew in the boat with the 



