THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 247 
than usual. One would be apt to suppose that a 
creature so huge and powerful, would be little the 
subject of fear or alarm; but, in truth, it is a re- 
markably timid animal; the approach even of a 
boat causing him to descend with precipitation. It 
is graciously ordained, that the creatures which are 
formed to contribute to man’s comfort or sustenance, 
though many of them are more powerful than he, 
should be impressed with such a fear of him, as 
in general to be incapable of using their superior 
strength to his disadvantage. “And the fear of 
you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast 
of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air; upon 
all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the 
fishes of the sea; into your hand are they deliver- 
ed.”* But this huge animal has other enemies 
than man: equally with the Greenland Whale, it 
is subject to the assaults of some of the larger 
predaceous fishes; the Sword-fish and the Saw-fish 
plunge into his body their formidable snouts, and the 
“Thresher” leaps upon him from above. Mr. Beale 
records the following incident, as reported to him 
by an eye-witness, a gentleman on whose veracity he 
could rely. “He stated that he had been observing 
a Sperm Whale during the time it had remained 
at the surface to breathe, which afterwards went 
through the evolution of peaking its flukes in the 
usual manner, and disappeared. As it was a large 
Whale, and as he knew it was likely to remain under 
water for a considerable time, he scarcely expected 
to see it again. However, in this he was mistaken; 
# Gen. ix. 2. 
