THE WHALE'S CONJUGAL FIDELITY. 365 



Well proves this kindness what the Grecian sung, 

 That Love's bright mother* from the ocean sprung. 

 Their courage droops, and hopeless now, they wish 

 For composition with the unconquered fish ; 

 So she their weapons would restore again, 

 Through rocks they'd hew her passage to the main." 



The fishers attacked them with volleys of musketry, 

 but to no successful purpose ; and they were on the point 

 of sending to the fort for artillery, when the whales were 

 delivered by the flowing tide, which carried them out 

 into the deep waters. Thus the combatants 



"Parted with exchange of harms ; 

 Much blood the monsters lost, and they their arms. " t 



Of the conjugal affection of the whale, the following 

 example is related. Two which were swimming in com- 

 pany, and proved to be male and female, were attacked 

 by a whaler. On her companion being wounded, the other 

 exhibited the greatest uneasiness; swam gallantly up to 

 the whaling boat, and with one stroke of her gigantic cau- 

 dal fin killed three men, and hurled them into the sea. 

 To the last the two kept in close neighbourhood; and 

 when the male was killed, the female gave utterance to 

 her grief in terrible cries. 



The mother- whale's affection for her young is frequently 

 turned to good account by the hunters. They strike the 

 " sucker " as a means of bringing the mother to its assist- 

 ance; and she seldom fails to come up beside it, encourage 

 it to swim off, and take it under her protecting fin, 

 seldom deserting it so long as life remains. It is then, 

 says Scoresby, very dangerous to approach her. She 

 loses all thought for her own safety in anxiety for the 



* Venus Aphrodite. 



t Edmund Waller, "Battle of the Summer Islands," cantos ii. and iii. 



