b'l PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1725. 



Ihrougli, and of the toughest wood that can be found, into which the ends of 

 the cedar clap-boards are nailed, cut off smooth above the cuddee, without so 

 much as shattering the boat, or drawing the nails of the clap-boards. An oar 

 has been cut off by a stroke upwards, and yet not so much as lifted up out of 

 the thole-pin. One person had an oar cut off, while in his hand, and yet 

 never felt any jarring. 



A few years since, one of the finback, whales came into a harbour near Cape 

 Cod, and towed away a sloop of near 40 ton, out of the harbour into the sea. 

 This accident happened thus: it is thought the whale was rubbing herself on 

 the fiuke of the anchor, or going near the bottom, got the fluke into her 

 nisket, or the orifice of the uterus, and, finding herself caught, tore away with 

 such violence, and towed the sloop out of the harbour, as fast as if she had 

 been under sail with a good gale of wind, to the astonishment of the people 

 on shore; for there was nobody on board. When the whale came into deep 

 water, she went under, and had like to have carried the sloop with her, but 

 the cable gave way, so the boats that were out after her recovered it. This 

 whale was found dead some days after on that shore, with the anchor sticking 

 in iier belly. 



The fish that prey upon the whales, and often kill the young ones, are by 

 the whalemen called killers. These killers are from 20 to 30 feet long, and 

 have teeth in both jaws that lock into each other. They have a fin near the 

 middle of their back 4 or 5 feet long. They go in company by dozens, and 

 set upon a young whale, and will bait him like so many bull dogs; some will 

 lay hold of his tail to keep him from threshing, while others lay hold of his 

 head, and bite and thresh him, till the poor creature, being thus heated, lolls 

 out his tongue, and then some of the killers catch hold of his lips, and if pos- 

 sible of his tongue; and after they have killed him, they chiefly feed upon the 

 tongue and head; but when he begins to putrefy they leave him. This killer is 

 doubtless the orca, that Dr. Frangius describes in his Treatise of Animals. His 

 words are these: " When an orca pursues a whale, the latter makes a terrible 

 bellowing, like a bull when bitten by a dog." These killers are of such 

 strength, that when several boats together have been towing a dead whale, 

 one of them has come and fastened his teeth in her, and carried her away down 

 to the bottom in an instant. And sometimes again, they have bitten out a 

 piece of blubber of about 2 feet square, which is of that toughness, that an 

 iron with little barbs being struck into it, will hold it till it draws the boat 

 under water. The killers are sometimes taken, and make good oil, but have 

 no whalebone. The carcases of whales in the sea serve for food for gulls, and 

 other sea fowl, as well as sharks. 



