246 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS I. MAMMALIA. 



pressed out nf tlie water, and laid upon the ice. In LSlt) ten ships were 

 lost out of sixty-three, and in 1S21 eleven out of seventy-nine. Fortunately 

 the loss of lives is seldom to be deplored, as the weather is generally calm, 

 and the crew has time enough to escape in another vessel. 



Whale lishing is not only a very dangerous pursuit, it is also exti-cniely 

 precarious and uncertain in its results. Sometimes a complete cargo of oil 

 and whalebone is captured in a short time, but it also liaj)[>cns that after a 

 long cruise not a single \\ hale is caught — a result crpially imfortunate for the 

 ship-owner and the crew, who look to a share of the profits for their pay. 



How much the whale trade depends upon chance is shown by the follow- 

 ing facts. In (he year 171<S the Dutch Greenland fiect, consisting of one 

 hundred and eight ships, captured twehe hundred and ninety-one whales 

 worth, at least, three million of dollars, while in the year 171U, one hundred 

 and thirty-seven shi[)s took no more than sixty-two. Various meteorolonieal 

 circumstances — the prevalence of particular winds, the character of the sum- 

 mer, or preceding winter — are proliably the causes of the extraordinary 

 faihu'e and success of the business in dillercnt years. The Pacific is as falla- 

 cious as the arctic seas. Thus Dumont d'Ur\ ille met in the Bav of Talca- 

 huano with several whalers, one of whom had rapidly filled half his ship, 

 while the others had cruised more than a jear without having harpooned a 

 single whale. In such cases the captains have the greatest ti'onble in prevent- 

 ing their men from deserting; who, being dlsa|ipointcd in their hopes, 

 nati:rallv enough look out for a better cliancc elsewhere. 



"The method of whale-catching has been so often and so minutely de- 

 scribed, that it is doubtless i'amiliar to the reader. As soon as a whale is in 

 sight, boats are got out ^\itll all speed, and row or sail as silently and rpiietly 

 as possible tov.-ards the monster. (.)nc of flie crew — a man of unfiinching 

 eye and ner\dus arm — stands upright, harpoon in hand, ready to hurl the 

 nnu'dcrous spear into the animal's side a.s soon as the jiroper moment shall 

 have come. A\'hen struck, tlie whale dives down perpendicularly, with fear- 

 ful velocitv, or uoes off horizonfallv with lightning speed, at a short distance 

 from the surfice, dragging after him the line to \\\i\r\i the barbed instrinnent 

 of his agony is fixed. But so(ni the necessity of respiration forces him to I'ise 

 again abo\e the waters, wlicn a second harpoon, fallowed by a third or fourth 

 at every reappearance, plunges into his fiank. [Maddened v\ith pain and terror, 

 he laslies the crimsoned waters into fiiam, but all his eftorts to cast off the 

 darts that lacerate his fiesh arc vain. His movements become more and 

 more languid and slow, his gasping and snorting more and more oppressed, 

 a few C(invnlsi\e hcavings agitate the mighty mass, and then it floats inert 

 and lifeless on the w;itcrs. As soon as death is cert:;in — lor to the hist 

 moment a convul.-ivc blow of the mighty tail might dash the over-h.asty boat 



