222 WHALES. 



class which deals only in the wonderful, and partially 

 at least invents the wonderful in which it deals, give to 

 the whale a length of nine hundred or a thousand feet ; 

 but there are well authenticated accounts of individuals 

 having been met with, in the early days of the Green- 

 land fishery, that have measured from one hundred and 

 twenty to one hundred and fifty feet. Thus it must be 

 regarded as the largest animal of which naturalists have 

 any knowledge. In the present times, indeed, some 

 of the spermaceti whales, which are much more active 

 and ferocious animals, and therefore less frequently 

 caught, are said to exceed the common whale in size, 

 though none of them come up even to the authenticated 

 dimensions that were formerly assigned to it. 



The whale is, independently of its size, and its 

 value in a commercial point of view, one of the most 

 interesting of animals. Its powers of motion are incre- 

 dible ; and its tail, as a weapon of defence, is most 

 formidable ; but it has neither the disposition nor the 

 means of doing voluntary harm to any other fish. It 

 is endowed with the most tender affection for its young ; 

 and though its eyes are small, the expression of them 

 indicates a degree of perception or even of understand- 

 ing, of which the eyes of fish properly so called have 

 not a trace. It has been compared to the eye of the 

 elephant ; and it is not a little singular that the largest 

 animal, both of the land and the sea, should be endowed 

 with the greatest intelligence, and not a voluntary de- 

 stroyer of other animals. Both have this common 

 character too, that they are clumsy in appearance, and 

 would not, at the first, lead one to look for that vast 

 muscular power which they can exhibit. 



