242 TIIE OCEAN. 



saken for the sunny isles of Polynesia, and these, 

 again, for the inhospitable shores of Kamschatka. 

 Peculiar dangers attend them in their protracted 

 voyage; if they escape unscathed from the storms 

 of the south, it is to enter an ocean strewn with in- 

 numerable reefs of stony coral, whose positions are 

 but imperfectly indicated in charts, to touch one of 

 which would be inevitable destruction; if these are 

 safely passed, it is to penetrate into a sea vexed with 

 the most terrible of tempests, the typhoon. The 

 duration of the voyage is protracted to a length 

 which would justify our calling it an exile; this is 

 no summer's trip; three and even four years are 

 the ordinary periods allotted to this enterprise. The 

 object of the pursuit, gigantic in size and power, 

 seems to demand no ordinary courage in its assail- 

 ant; and more especially in his own element, when 

 he is "making the sea to boil like a pot of oint- 

 ment," to venture to the battle in a frail boat, needs 

 a hardihood of more than common calibre. The 

 moment of victory is frequently the moment of 

 danger; the dying struggles of the lanced Whale 

 are of fearful impetuosity; the huge and muscular 

 tail lashes the Ocean into foam, and the long and 

 powerful lower jaw, serried with teeth, snaps con- 

 vulsively in every direction. Timid as this mighty 

 animal usually is, instances are not infrequent, in 

 which a consciousness of strength has been accom- 

 panied by the will to use it. The destruction of 

 the ship Essex, an American whaler, affords a re- 

 markable instance of the ferocity and determination, 

 as well as of the power, of the Sperm Whale. This 



