NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Terrible in the agonies of death. 



by the call of appetite, U amusing to observe. 

 He approaches, examines, and swims round it: 

 seems for a while to neglect it, as if apprehensive 

 of the delusion; but his voracity encreasing, he 

 returns as if ready to seize it, but apprehension 

 again drives him back: thus, like a youthful sin- 

 ner, he keeps agitated between desire and fear, 

 while the sailors continue to divert themselves 

 with his contending passions, till they make a 

 pretence of drawing the bait away, when propel- 

 led by every appetite at once, he darts rapidly at 

 the bait, and makes one ravenous gulp of it, hook 

 and all. When the hook is lodged in his maw, 

 his efforts are most strenuously, though vainly, 

 exerted to get free: he endeavours to cut the 

 chain with his teeth ; he labours with all his force 

 to break the line; and his exertions to disgorge 

 the hook, almost turn his stomach inside out; 

 until enfeebled by unsuccessful attempts, and 

 quite exhausted of his strength, he permits the 

 sailors to drag him out of his native element, 

 and dispatch him, which is done by repeated 

 and severe blows on the head. 



In dragging him, however, on ship-board, 

 much caution is necessary; and much difficulty 

 and danger are frequently experienced: for in the 

 agonies of death he is terrible, and struggles 

 powerfully with his executioners: his head and 

 tail are secured and fastened at the same time; 

 but the hitter is afterwards frequently cut off with 

 an axe, to prevent his flouncing, the consequence 



