THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 329 



with a guard -belt abouf the waist, and over the vail, we 

 transfixed the ugly brutes until they actually were educated 

 to a sense of the danger, and hovered, frightened, at a dis- 

 tance. At times the ferocity of their hunger was frightful. 

 On more than one occasion, when a blow of the spade left 

 the bowels of one protruding, the others would seize on the 

 bait, and tear and drag it through the water. The sailors 

 may not have been close Observers, perhaps, but they assert- 

 ed that they saw what led them to believe that sharks thus 

 disemboweled returned to the tempting feast. At all events 

 it is certain that, with back and sides gashed with wounds, 

 insensible to pain, they would tear the dead whale or each 

 other. All their feeling seems centred in the broad, thin 

 nose which pi'ojects far over the crescent mouth; for, when- 

 ever we succeeded in striking that part with the sharp weap- 

 ons, the wounded fish would dart away at full speed, and re- 

 turn no more. One great fellow was transfixed through 

 this tender part by a lance, which, penetrating deep into the 

 body of the whale, pinned him there, and held him close 

 pi'isoner. As the waves receded and exposed his full length 

 to view, his struggles were terrific, and his tail thrashed the 

 smooth blubber with cracks like the fire of musketry. The 

 whole exhibition was one to fill a midsummer night's dream 

 with the horrors of a nightmare. 



How came it, we wonder, that none of the fiends in hu- 

 man shape who have tortured poor humanity never thought 

 of having an arena of ravenous sharks to rend, slay, and bury 

 their victims ? What a fine sensation it would have furnish- 

 ed on a Roman holiday ! and what an exquisite adjunct to 

 clerical machinery for the punishment of heretics ! 



The gale continued the entire day (13th), but the morn- 

 ing of the 14th opened with somewhat moderated, but still 

 rough weather. The whale alongside had so swollen that 

 much of its huge bulk rose above the water, and it was mon- 



