THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



the skipper himself hauls in the line, and joins the 

 shouting throng. Yes ; the grains have been well 

 thrown, and are fast in the fleshy part of the 

 back. What a monster I full fifteen feet long, if 

 he's an inch! and how he plunges, and dives, and 

 rolls round and round, enraged at the pain and 

 restraint, till you can't discern his body for the 

 sheet of white foam in which it is enwrapped! 

 The stout line strains and creaks, but holds on; 

 a dozen eager hands are pulling in, and at last 

 the unwilling victim is at the surface just beneath 

 the bows, but plunging with tremendous force. 



Now, one of the smarter hands has jumped into 

 the forechains with a rope made into a noose. 

 Many efforts he makes to get this over the tail, 

 without success ; at length it is slipped over, in an 

 instant hauled taut, and the prey is secure. 



"Reeve the line through a block, and take a 

 run with it!" Up comes the vast length, tail 

 foremost, out of the sea; for a moment the un- 

 gainly beast hangs, twining and bending his 

 body, and gnashing those horrid fangs, till half-a- 

 dozen boat-hooks guide the mass to its death-bed 

 on the broad deck. Stand clear 1 If that mouth 

 get hold of your leg, it will cut through it, sinew, 

 muscle, and bone; the stoutest man on board 

 would be swept down if he came within the reach 

 of that violent tail. What reverberating blows it 

 inflicts on the smooth planks 1 



One cannot look at that face without an in- 

 voluntary shudder. The long flat head, and the 

 mouth so greatly overhung by the snout, impart 

 a most repulsive expression to the countenance; 

 and then the teeth, those terrible serried fangs, as 

 keen as lancets, and yet cut into fine notches like 

 saws, lying row behind row, row behind row, six 

 rows deep ! See how the front rows start up into 

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