THE WHALE. 



Formidable weapon. 



and rather avoid than seek contention. They 

 are gregarious, and seldom found alone ; but so 

 rapid in their flight, that they could seldom be 

 taken but for those very teeth which seem in- 

 "tended for their chief defence ; for when attacked 

 in a crowd, they are so embarrassed and locked 

 together by their tusks that some are certain of 

 falling a prey to the fishermen. This curious 

 weapon is commonly straight as an arrow, 

 about eight or ten inches in thickness, generally 

 wreathed like twisted bars of iron, and is whiter, 

 heavier, and harder than ivory, which it far sur- 

 passes in all its qualities. The extreme length 

 of them has induced naturalists to consider them 

 rather as horns than teeth, though in every 

 respect resembling the tusks of the boar and the 

 elephant. It springs from the left side of the 

 head, from a socket in the upper jaw, into which 

 its root enters above a foot and a half, and darts 

 directly forward in a line with the body. The 

 animal is generally found with but one of these 

 dreadful instruments. Nor is this defensive wea- 

 pon confined to the male sex, as both have been 

 found armed in the same manner. 



By the whale tribe we are supplied with three 

 valuable articles, oil, whalebone, and spermaceti, 

 which renders the whale-fishery, in a commer- 

 cial point of view, of great importance to man- 

 kind. We shall therefore conclude this article 

 with a brief account of the whale fishery, which 



