94 THE WHALE. 



of letting out more rope, strive as much as possible to pull back 

 that which is already given out. If the whole line belonging to 

 one boat be run out, that of another is immediately fastened to 

 it. This is repeated as necessity requires ; and instances have 

 occurred where all the rope belonging to the six boats has been 

 necessary, although half the quantity is generally sufficient. 



When the whale descends, and has run some hundred fathom 

 deep, he is obliged to come up for air, and then makes so dread- 

 ful a noise with his spouting that some have compared it to the 

 firing of artillery. As soon as he appears on the surface of the 

 water, some of the harpooners fix another harpoon in him, upon 

 which he plunges again into the deep ; and on his coming up a 

 second time, they pierce him with spears, till he spouts out 

 streams of blood instead of water, beating the waves with his 

 fins and his tail, till the sea is all in a foam. He is then known 

 to be nearly dead, and the boats continue to follow him until he 

 has totally lost his strength. When dying, he turns himself on 

 his back, and is drawn on shore, or to the ship, if at a distance 

 from land. He is then cut up, and his flesh or blubber gene- 

 rally put in barrels, and brought home, although formerly, as 

 already observed, the oil was extracted in the country. 



Every whale is computed to yield, on an average, from sixty 

 to a hundred barrels of oil, of the value of about four pounds ster- 

 ling per barrel, which, with the whalebone, is sufficient to prove 

 the great importance of this fish considered in a commercial 

 point of view. 



The flesh of the whale is, among some nations, reckoned a 

 dainty ; and the inhabitants of Greenland are fond of it to ex- 

 cess. They not only eat the flesh, but drink the oil, which they 

 consider as one of their first-rate delicacies. The finding of a 

 dead whale is a circumstance which they rank among the fortu- 

 nate events of their lives. A number of them make their abode 

 near it, and seldom remove until they have picked the bones. 

 We cannot here but reflect on the blessings of civilization ; and 

 in contemplating the wretched condition of man little advanced 

 beyond a state of nature, be thankful to Divine Providence for 

 having placed us in a country where plenty is procured by in- 

 ustry, and protected by judicious and equitable laws. 



A skeleton of a whale, about sixty feet long, is preserved in 

 the exhibition rooms at Exeter 'Change. It has twenty-two 

 ribs, eleven on each side, and fifty-four vertebrae, or joints, in the 

 back-bone. 



THE NARWHALE, OR SEA UNICORN, 



Is less than the whale, not being more than sixty feet long : 

 its shape is also more slender, and its fat less abundant It is 



