WHO CAN IT BE? 421 



Some minutes elapsed before the identity of the missing 

 individual could be ascertained. Every one was greatly 

 distressed, and each, in his anxious exclamation, revealed 

 his anxiety for his friend. " It is Shields Jack," one ex- 

 claimed. " No," replied a voice of pathetic self-congratu- 

 lation ; "I am here." "It is Jack O'Neill," exclaimed 

 another ; "ay, poor fellow, it must be Jack O'Neill ! " 

 But a dripping, stupor-stricken sailor, clinging by the 

 weather-rail, stepped forward suddenly, and answered, 

 " No ; I am here." After a pause of suspense, a voice 

 added, " It is Chambers." " Oh, it must be Sam Cham- 

 bers," cried another ; and none contradicted the assertion, 

 for, in truth, it was the unfortunate seaman so named 

 who had thus suddenly and awfully perished. 



But here we must stop, not, indeed, from want of 

 material, for the annals of the whale-fishery are full of 

 these distressing incidents, but from want of space. 

 Moreover, the reader may be disposed to think that of 

 such sombre narratives he has already had enough. 



V. THE HERBIVOROUS CETACEA. 



From these monstrous Cetacea we turn to a group pre- 

 senting a certain likeness to them in form and organiza- 

 tion, but differing in their habits, and distinguished by 

 the absence of spiracles, or blow-holes, and by the position 

 of the nostrils, not on the upper part of the head, but at 

 the extremity of the proboscis. These are the Herbivorous 

 Cetacea of our naturalists ; the " tritons " and " sirens," 

 it is said, of ancient mythologists ; and the " mermen " 

 and " mermaidens " of modern fable-makers. 



The reader is probably familiar with the legends that 

 in course of ages have clustered round the sirens and 



