THE AMSBTCAN WHALEMAN. 189 



vations have met the approval of men of great experience ; 

 and if they should take a single thorn from the path of some 

 future Lesson in his researches, it will not be in vain I have 

 written. 



In the waters of Japan there is sometimes seen a fish 

 which, from its great size, is often supposed to be a whale. 

 We know it by the name of the " jumper," from its habit of 

 leaping entirely clear of the water, and falling with a great 

 splash, like the sturgeon. So far as I can learn, nothing 

 more is known of its form or habits than may be observed 

 in its flying leaps. It appears to be of a slender make, and 

 about as long as a ten -barrel sperm-whale. It does not 

 come to the surface to breathe, but seems to inhabit the 

 deep. We saw several during a few days. The crew all 



thought them to be whales, until Captain B informed 



us to the contrary. It may be this fish that Captain N". 

 Scott, R.E"., gives an account of in '' Wood's Natural His- 

 tory." He says that he "has seen the whale spring to such 

 a height out of water that the horizon could be seen under 

 it, although the spectators were standing on the deck of a 

 man-of-war. The whale was about three miles away from 

 the ship when observed." I would ask what captain in the 

 Royal Navy could distinguish this monster fish from the 

 whale three miles away ? 



Once upon a time, under the shaded porch of the inn at 

 Bridgehampton, Long Island, kept by John Hull, an old 

 whaler, and a trustworthy boat-steerer, I heard Ledyard 

 Brown, another boat - steerer, claim to have thrown his iron 

 into a sperm-whale when it was bodily in the air above the 

 level of his head. He steered Captain Rose, of Sag Harbor, 

 and he is the only American I have met who claims to have 

 seen a whale bodily in the air. Ledyard is brave, steady, 

 and truthful, and I can only suppose that in the moment of 

 striking a fighting whale he became a little bewildered with 

 flukes, jaws, gleaming ivory, and roaring cataracts. 



