THE DEAD LEVIATHAN. 



401 



angular peak that stands above the water a few yards be- 

 yond. This is one lobe of the dead creature's tail. The 

 island is his back. His head, with huge open mouth, 

 which appears large enough to swallow himself, is lying 

 deep under water. The nose-cable is already attached to 

 a windlass on shore, fixed at the top of a sloping wooden 



GUN-HARPOON. 



landing-place or whale-pier. On this huge slab the re- 

 mains of a whale brought in some time ago are still lying ; 

 a loathsome mountain of pinkish beefy flesh, into the 

 midst of which half-a-dozen of hideously blood-stained 

 men are chopping and hacking with great hatchets and 

 long-handled, big-bladed weapons, like inverted scythes or 



