WHALES. 229 



the grampus must have been their general type. At 

 present, the black whale is found only in the seas near 

 the two poles ; though it may occasionally pass from 

 the one to the other : the spermaceti whale is much 

 more generally diffused, and is occasionally met with 

 in all latitudes. 



If they were not so common that they pass un- 

 heeded, the voyages for the capture of those vast 

 animals might rank high in the annals of human ad- 

 venture. The islands and mountains of ice swimming 

 about in all directions, and producing winds from 

 every point of the compass within the same horizon 

 the dreadful crashes with which those cold islands 

 and continents meet, the fields which they then turn 

 up on edge the masses that they project into the 

 sky ships thrown out of the water, or having their 

 hulls cut in two, and one part above the ice and the 

 other sunk to the bottom while (for the storms are 

 often as loud as they are violent) within sight, others 

 are coursing among the whales, throwing their har- 

 poons, running out their lines after the plunging fish, 

 and piercing him with their lances when exhausted ; or 

 having him lashed to the ship's side, and flencmg off 

 the fat with shovels, amid the noise of clouds of 

 sea-fowl, screaming in expectation of the kreng, or 

 carcass, or contending with the crew for the fat : 

 these exhibit both nature and art in an aspect full of 

 interest; and, could they be seen by spectators un- 

 engaged and at their ease, would form a spectacle of 

 a very animated character. Nor would the interest 

 be diminished by the consideration, that every full- 

 sized whale that is captured, is worth upon the average 

 x 



