THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 227 



long and powerful lower jaw, serried with teeth, 

 snaps convulsively in every direction. Timid as this 

 niighty animal usually is, instances are not infre- 

 quent, in which a consciousness of strength has been 

 accompanied by the will to use it. The destruction 

 of the ship Essex, an American whaler, affords a 

 remarkable instance of the ferocity and determina- 

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

 This vessel was whaling in the vicinity of the Society 

 Islands, when one of these animals, having grazed 

 its back in passing beneath the vessel's keel, became 

 enraged, and after swimming to some distance, sud- 

 deidy turned, and rushed with amazing force against 

 the ship. The helmsman vainly endeavoured to 

 avoid the blow, and the animal repeating the attack, 

 stove in the ship's bows, when she speedily filled 

 and went down, barely allowing the hands on board 

 time to take to the boat. Those who were out in 

 pursuit, seeing, to their astonishment, their vessel 

 sink without any apparent cause, hastened to the 

 spot, and the wliole crew found themselves in open 

 boats, tliree thousand miles from the coast of Chili, 

 to whicli they determined to j^i'oceed, but where 

 three or four only arrived after painful aud pro- 

 tracted sufferings. 



The Sperm Whale {Physeter macrocephalus) attains 

 a greater length tlian the Greenland W^liale, from 

 which it is at once distinguished by the remarkable 

 form of the head. As in the latter, the head occupies 

 about one-third of the entire length, but it is of the 

 same iliickness throughout, appearing as if it had 

 been suddenly cut otf at the muzzle ; so that the 



