52 MAMMALIA. 



and increase the weight the Whale has to drag along with it : "■<? 

 speed of the animal is not perceptibly diminished. 



"This phase of the combat necessitates a fresh device,more difficult 

 and more dangerous to execute than those which preceded it. Armed 

 with a mattock or sharp spade, the thrower waits till the Whale has 

 raised its taU some metres out of the water, and hauling himself 

 just under this formidable weajion, he throws his mattock on a 

 level with the last caudal vertebra. If he divides the artery and 

 the tendons, the blood gushes out in floods, and the pace slackens 

 to a great extent. Owing also to this attack in the rear, the 

 Whale often changes its route ; the boat is now on the side 

 instead of being behind, and the harpoon can again be used. It 

 would be impossible for me to describe all the defaces, all the false 

 attacks, all the escapes, all the desperate attacks of man upon this 

 living mass, which, with one blow of its tail-flukes, could smash 

 to atoms all the boats belonging to a ship. Fortunately the 

 animal does not know how formidable it really is ; it is only when 

 it tries to escape that it causes disasters. When it is possible to 

 do so, another boat makes itself fast to the AYhale, so as to make 

 its chance of escape still less, and thus to come to the final result 

 sooner. At each blow the animal makes hoarse and metallic 

 roarings, which can be lieard for a distance of miles ; the hloii-, or 

 what it spouts forth, is -n-hite, thick, and rises to a great height, 

 until, after a lucky hit has been made, two cohmins of blood 

 escape from the spiracles or blow-holes, rise into the air, and in 

 their fall redden the sea for a great way roiuid ; from this moment 

 the Whale is considered as good as dead. And in fact, after 

 some additional fresh wounds, the spouts do not rise to such a 

 height, the blood is thicker, the divings are less prolonged, the 

 strength of the creature is becoming exhausted, and the fishermen 

 cease to contend with it. Sometimes death comes immediately 

 after the appearance of blood in the spout, but life is generally 

 prolonged for one or two hours more: this circumstance is regarded 

 as favourable, inasmuch as the great loss of blood leaves the body 

 specifically lighter, and therefore better able to float. However, 

 the animal may still be lost ; the distance, the night, or the state of 

 the sea does not allow of the vessel following it. On the approach 

 of its death the poor Whale collects all its remaining strength, and 

 in a disorderly flight, without an aim, without any consciousness 



