BANK OF SOFALA. 
19 
traverse the Bank in perfect safety.* The Portuguese are so well 
aware of the danger of approaching nearer, that they never let 
their ships attempt it, but carry on the whole intercourse with 
Sofala by small coasting vessels from Mosambique. 
The number of whales we met with on the Bank was very consi- 
derable. At times we had twenty or thirty in sight ; some of them 
passing close by the vessel, others darting away, making a snorting 
noise, and throwing up the water like a fountain. At different times 
they seemed to be pursuing each other, wildly rolling and tumbling 
about, occasionally rising erect out of the water, shining like bright 
pillars of silver, then falling on their backs and flapping their 
enormous fins violently on the surface, with a noise somewhat re- 
sembling the report of a cannon. f It occurred to us that during 
this period, they were probably engaged in generating their 
species, on which account, it is not improbable that at this parti- 
cular season only they frequent the Bank ; but whatever might 
have been the occasion of their assemblage, it was an uncommon 
and interesting sight, to see these unwieldy monsters X wan-^ 
tonly sporting in the deep like playful dolphins. 
On the 23d of August, at three in the afternoon, we made the 
* Captain Tomkinson, who went up this channel a few months before us in the Caledon 
brig of war, has remarked in his journal «^ that this is the best track for India ships, from 
the beginning of May to the middle of August," which opinion, the observations we made 
fully confirm. 
t Vide description of the leviathan in Job — " When he raiseth up himself, the mighty 
are afraid : by reason of breakings they purify themselves."—- which expressions may possibly 
apply to the circumstances above described. 
I This species is tlie Balsena physalus, which, from its fierceness and the small quantity 
of oil which it yields, is seldom sought after by the fishermen, 
