His CAPTORS. 227 



Perilous Hunt. A Boat thrown into a Whale's Mouth. 



their thwarts. At the same moment, the boat- 

 steerer let fly his two harpoons into the mam- 

 moth body, which rolled over on its back ; and 

 before the boat could get clear of danger, being 

 to the windward, a heavy sea struck it and threw 

 them directly into the whale's mouth ! All, of 

 course, sprang for their lives, and they had bare- 

 ly time to throw themselves clear of the boat 

 before it was crushed to pieces by those pon- 

 derous jaws, and its ejected crew were provi- 

 dentially all picked up by another boat. 



Such are the dangers which are continually 

 incurred in the whale fishery, equal almost to 

 those of the field of battle. We often wonder 

 that so many escape with their lives from a 

 battle field ; and we equally wonder that, com- 

 paratively, so few perish in this most hazardous 

 pursuit. A boat, almost as frail as a bubble, ap- 

 proaches the side of a whale, slumbering upon 

 the ocean, sixty or eighty feet in length, and a 

 harpoon is plunged into his body. His efforts to 

 destroy his tormentors or escape from them, as 

 we have again and again learned, are terrific. 

 The ocean is lashed into foam by blows from his 

 enormous flukes, which would almost dash in 

 the ribs of a man-of-war. Often he rushes at 



