156 THE OCEAN. 



purpose, and hoisted on deck in a mass ; it is then 

 split into junks, containing eight or ten blades each. 

 Sometimes the jaws are taken out, and being fixed in 

 a perpendicular position on deck, with the extremi- 

 ties in vessels, a considerable quantity of oil gradu- 

 ally drains from them. The carcass is then cut away 

 as valueless to man, though a valuable prize to bears, 

 birds, and sharks. Sometimes the carcass sinks im- 

 mediately. Mr. Scoresby mentions a case in which 

 it had been cut adrift prematurely, one of the men 

 being still upon it; it began to sink, but unfortu- 

 nately a hook in his boot had a firm hold of the 

 flesh; he convulsively grasped the side of the boat 

 in which his comrades were, and the whole immense 

 weight was suspended by his foot. The torture was 

 extreme; it was expected every instant that his foot 

 would be rent off, or that his body would be torn 

 asunder; but presently, by the merciful interposi- 

 tion of God, one of his companions contrived to hook 

 a grapnel into the carcass, and it was drawn suffi- 

 ciently near the surface for him to be extricated. 



The Whale to which the preceding notices refer, 

 is by no means the largest of the tribe, as the Great 

 "Rorqual (Bahznoptera hoops) sometimes attains 

 nearly double the length of the former. Two spe- 

 cimens have been measured of the length of one 

 hundred and five feet, and Sir A. de Capell Brooke 

 asserts, that it is occasionally seen of the enormous 

 dimensions of a hundred and twenty feet The 

 Rorqual inhabits the same seas as the " right" 

 Whale, but is not usually seen in company with 

 it; they seem rather to avoid each other. The 



