114 THE WHALE AND 



Sperm Whale in Pain. Sperm "Whale Dying. 



spiracles, portions of its lance-lacerated lungs 

 and the contents of its capacious stomach also 

 are being vomited at the mouth. The sea, too, 

 will be lashed by its mighty tail with a sound 

 that may be heard in calm weather for miles 

 like thunder. 



It is painful to witness the death-agony of 

 any creature, even the smallest that God has 

 given life to, much more that of one in which 

 life is so lively and tenacious, and animating so 

 vast a bulk. And though it be true what the 

 dramatic poet said, 



The sense of death is most in apprehension, 

 And the poor beetle that we tread upon, 

 In corporal sufferance feels a pang 

 As great as when a giant dies^ 



yet I am not one that can coolly observe the last 

 agony of so mighty an organized creature as the 

 whale with as little emotion as some persons 

 feel at the crushing of a reptile or the writhing 

 of a worm ; nor do I believe that the suffering 

 in the one case is as great as that in the other. 

 But it is painful enough to see any thing forci- 

 bly bereft of the boon of life, the gift of Him 

 that made us all, 



Who gives its luster to the insect's wing, 



And wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds. 



