70 THE WHALE AND 



Bunyan and the Whale. Economy of Providence. 



sometimes seen floating on the surface in these 

 seas alive, oftener dead, when it has the appear- 

 ance at a distance of clots of blood, only yellower. 

 I have seen it in both states, and as entangled 

 in the hair of dead whales. The quantity nec- 

 essary for the animal's support must be prodig- 

 ious. 



I can doubly appreciate now that amusing 

 passage in the Holy War, where Bunyan says, 

 " Silly Mansoul did not stick nor boggle at a 

 monstrous oath that she would not desert Dia- 

 bolus, but swallowed it without chewing, as if 

 it had been a sprat in the mouth of a whale" 

 This feed is supposed to lie generally rather 

 deep under water in these seas, as whales are 

 often taken in greatest numbers where none of 

 it is to be seen on the surface. In the Green- 

 land and Arctic Seas it often covers miles and 

 miles in extent, thick enough, it is said, to im- 

 pede the course of a ship ; and perhaps, in the 

 economy of Providence, whales as well as sharks 

 are but the scavengers of the great deep, to con- 

 sume what would otherwise putrefy and decay. 



A volume of the Family Library, on " Polar 

 Seas and Regions," which I have been reading 

 with great interest on shipboard, says, that the 



