THE MOTHER AND HER OFFSPRING. 363 



ship and seven boats at the rate of three miles an hour, 

 " incarnadining " the water with her blood. However, 

 her struggles gradually grew less furious : loss of blood, 

 and the immense efforts she had made to escape, neces- 

 sarily caused great exhaustion ; and at nine o'clock a boat 

 was able to overtake her, and, firing a rocket, succeeded 

 in dealing the death-blow with a lance, whereupon she 

 expired, amidst the cheers of all hands. 



The little " sucker," adds Captain Markham, that had 

 accompanied the " big fish," was seen for about half an 

 hour, coming up to blow every time its mother rose for 

 the same purpose, and then suddenly disappearing after 

 the mother had given some unusually violent convulsion 

 with her tail and fins. Here was another illustration of 

 the fact that a whale, having a young one in her company, 

 will, when struck, invariably kill it if she has the oppor- 

 tunity. 



Whether this be a proof of affection, some of our readers 

 may be inclined to doubt. But of the general " philopro- 

 genitiveness " of the whale the evidence is abundant, and 

 it is admitted by all our travellers and naturalists. There 

 are well-authenticated instances on record, though we 

 may not be able to accept in its entirety the incident 

 described by Waller in his " Battle of the Summer 

 Islands." In a well-known passage of this poem he re- 

 presents two whales, a mother and her young one, as 

 adrift in the shallow waters of the coast : 



"Two mighty whales ! which swelling seas had tost, 

 And left them prisoners on the rocky coast : 

 One as a mountain vast, and with her came 

 A cub, not much inferior to his dam. 

 Here in a pool, among the rocks engaged, 

 They roared, like lions caught in toils, and raged." 



