BAL 



BAL 



is strong, and easily avoids the stroke ; 

 then bounding into the air, it foils upon 

 its enemy, and endeavours not to pierce 

 with its pointed beak, but to cut with its 

 toothed edges. The sea all about is soon 

 dyed with blood, proceeding from the 

 wounds of the whale ; while the enor- 

 mous animal vainly endeavours to reach 

 its invader, and strikes with its tail against 

 the surface of the water, making a report 

 at each blow louder than the noise of a 

 cannon. There is still another powerful 

 enemy to this fish, which is called the oria, 

 or killer. A number of these are said to 

 surround the whale in the same manner 

 as dogs get round a bull. Some attack it 

 with their their teeth behind ; others at- 

 tempt it before : until at last the great 

 animal is torn down, and its tongue is said 

 to be the only part they devour when they 

 have made it their prey. But of all the 

 enemies of these enormous fishes, man is 

 the greatest ; he alone destroys more in a 

 year than the rest in an age, and actually 

 has thinned their numbers in that part of 

 the world where they are chiefly sought. 

 At the first discovery of Greenland, 

 whales, not being used to be disturbed, 

 frequently came into the very bays, and 

 were accordingly killed almost close to 

 the shore ; so that the blubber, being cut 

 off, was immediately boiled into oil on the 

 spot. The ships, in those times, took in 

 nothing but the pure oil and the whale- 

 bone, and all the business was executed 

 in the country ; by which means a ship 

 could bring home the product of many 

 more whales, than she can according to 

 the present method of conducting this 

 trade. The fishing also was then so plen- 

 tiful, that they were obliged sometimes 

 to send other ships to fetch off the oil 

 they had made, the quantity being more 

 than the fishing ships could bring away. 

 But time and change of circumstances 

 have shifted the situation of this trade. 

 The ships coming in such numbers from 

 Holland, Denmark, Hamburg, and other 

 northern countries, all intruders upon the 

 English, who were the first discoverers 

 of Greenland, the whales were disturbed; 

 and gradually, as other fish often do, for- 

 saking the place, were not to be killed so 

 near the shore as before ; but are now 

 found, and have been so ever since, in 

 the openings and space among the ice, 

 where they have deep water, and where 

 they go sometimes a great many leagues 

 from the shore. The whale-fishery be- 

 gins in May, and continues all June and 

 July : but whether the ships have good 

 or bad success, they must come away, 

 and get clear of the ice, by the end of 

 VOX.,. XL 



August. There are several whale fishe- 

 ries on the coast of the United States, and 

 two or three of these animals are taken 

 annually as far south as Great Egg Har- 

 bour. See Plate I. PISCES, fig. 5.' WHALE 

 FISHERY. 



BALE, in commerce, is said of mer- 

 chandizes packed up in cloth, and cord- 

 ed round very tight, in order to keep them 

 from breaking-, or preserve them from 

 the weather. Most of the merchandize 

 capable of this kind of package, designed 

 for fairs or exportation, ought to be in 

 bales, and too much care cannot be taken 

 in packing them, to prevent their being 

 damagecT. The bales are always to be 

 marked and numbered, that the mer- 

 chants to whom they belong may easily 

 know them. 



BALE goods, among the English mer- 

 chants, are all such as are imported or 

 exported in bales ; but the French give 

 that name to certain hardwares, and other 

 sort of merchandise, which come to Paris, 

 and are commonly made by bad work- 

 men, of indifferent materials. 



BALISTES, in natural history, a genus 

 of Branchiostegous fishes. The generic 

 characters are : teeth eight in each jaw, 

 of which the two anterior ones are longer, 

 and three lateral ones on each side more 

 obtuse ; body compressed ; abdomen 

 carinated ; skin tough, often reticulated 

 by scale-like divisions. There are 24 

 species ; of which we shall mention the 

 following, viz. the B. monoceros, or uni- 

 corn file-fish, which is often two feet long 

 or more ; the body is of an oval shape, 

 and possesses the power of inflating at 

 pleasure the sides of the abdomen, by 

 means of a pair of bony processes within 

 that part ; the skin is every where cover- 

 ed with minute spines, and the general 

 colour is grey, inclining to brown on the 

 upper parts, and varied with irregular, 

 dusky, subtransverse undulations and 

 spots : immediately over the head, just 

 above their eyes, is a strong, single, re- 

 curved spine, of considerable length, and 

 serrated on the hind part : both fins and 

 tail are of a pale brown colour, the latter 

 being marked by a few dusky bars. This 

 fish is a native of the Indian and Ameri- 

 can seas, feeding chiefly on crustaceous 

 and testaceous marine animals. It is said 

 to be a poisonous fish. B. vetula, or an- 

 cient file-fish, is likewise denominated 

 the old wife fish, a name which it is sup- 

 posed to have obtained from the appear- 

 ance of the mouth when viewed in front, 

 as well as from the slightly murmuring 

 noise which it utters when first taken. B. 

 maculatus, spotted file-fish, is of an oval 



