A CAPTURED WHALE 229 



of these live degenerated crab-like animals. It has 

 since occurred to me that my deep interest in the 

 eye of a whale, its odd jaws, and the little crabs 

 which infested its skin are not so much due to my 

 passionate love of nature and natural history, as 

 to the fact that everything relating to the whale 

 excites my liveliest interest, principally because, as 

 a boy in an inland town, I used to read exciting 

 stories of whalers and then wonder if I would ever 

 see a real live whale. 



In the illustrations to the boys' books of whaling 

 adventures little care was given to detail of the 

 monsters of the deep ; such small points of the 

 anatomy as the eyes and flippers were enveloped 

 in a mystery caused by a lack of knowledge on the 

 part of the illustrators. Hence the eyes, flippers 

 and other details were usually ingeniously cover- 

 ed up with convenient waves or masses of foam. 

 In fact I think that the first correct drawing of a 

 whale, which has appeared in any of the popular 

 natural works, is the one in the Standard Natural 

 History, made from a drawing of the late Dr. 

 Holder, Curator of the New York Museum of 

 Natural History, which he made from some of the 

 very drawings and photographs reproduced in this 

 chapter. 



