CHAPTER XVII. 







THE WHALE : AND THE WHALE-FISHERY. 



"Where the whale tumbles in the foamy deeps." 



I. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE WHALE. 



SI HE WHALE is the leviathan of the animal 

 world ; the Anak, or, poetically speaking, the 

 Titan of the seas. Among the monsters of 

 the deep he reigns supreme in size and 

 strength and were he not gifted with a gentle, and even 

 a timorous disposition, he might commit unchecked the 

 most formidable ravages. Formerly, he was included 

 among the fishes ; and before zoology was developed as 

 a science, it was not unnatural that men should adopt 

 such a classification for a creature shaped like a fish, and 

 dwelling in the ocean-waters. But his organization and 

 habits are now better understood ; and as he is a warm- 

 blooded animal, with a twofold circulation of the blood, 

 that is, to and from the heart, as he breathes the atmos- 

 pheric air, as the female is viviparous and suckles her 

 young, the whale is rightly placed among the mammals. 

 The anatomist can show you that he has a respiratory 



