THE WHALE. 31 



Immense magnitude. 



CHAP. IL 



" Hard by the shore a fisherman espies 

 Two mighty whalt* which swelling seas had tost 

 And left them pris'uers on a rocky coast; 

 One as a mountain vast and with her came 

 A cub not much inferior to his dam. 



The bigger whale, like some huge carrock lay 

 Which wauteth sea room with her foes to play. 



The shining steel her tender sides receive. 

 And there, like bees, they all their weapons leave ; 

 This sees the cub, and does himself oppose, 

 Betwixt the cumber'd mother and her foes." 



THE WHALE. 



THE whale is of the cetaceous order of fish, 

 which produce their young alive, and not from 

 ova; and being remarkable for its immense mag- 

 nitude, justly claims the first place in our account 

 of the inhabitants of the deep. 



The ancients have described the whale as 



being six hundred feet in length. At present it 



is sometimes found in the northern seas ninety 



feet in length, and twenty in breadth ; but for- 



6 ' 



