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CHAPTER Y. 
OTHER ACTIONS OF THE SPERM WHALE. 
When in a state of alarm, or gambolling in sport on 
the surface of the ocean, the sperm whale has many 
curious modes of acting ; with the reason of some, I am 
at present unacquainted. 
It is difficult to conceive any object in nature calcu- 
lated to cause alarm to this leviathan; he appears how- 
ever to be remarkably timid, and is readily alarmed by 
the approach of a whale boat. 
When seriously alarmed, the whale is said by sailors 
to be ffi gallied,” or probably more properly, galled, and 
in this state he performs many actions very differently 
from his usual mode, as has been mentioned in speaking 
of his swimming and breathing, and many also which 
he is never observed to perform under any other cir- 
cumstances. One of them is what is called “ sweeping/’ 
which consists in moving the tail slowly from side to 
side on the surface of the water, as if feeling for the 
boat or any other object that may be in the neighbour- 
hood. The whale has also an extraordinary manner of 
rolling over and over on the surface, and this he does 
when “ fastened to,” which means, when a harpoon with 
a line attached is fixed in his body ; and in this case 
