Extracts from Dr Hibberf s Description 
nearest whale, bore him unresistingly along to the shallowest 
part of the shore. One of the deadly foes of this meekest of the 
inhabitants of the sea deliberately lifted up a fin, and beneath it 
plunged into the body of the animal the harpoon that he grasp- 
ed, so as to reach the large vessels of the heart. A long state 
of insensibility followed, succeeded by the most di’eadful con- 
vulsions ; the victim lashed the water with his tail, and deluged 
the land for a considerable distance : another death-like pause 
ensued ; throes still fainter and fainter were repeated with short- 
er intermissions, until at length he lay motionless on the' 
strand. The butchers afterwards set off in a different direction, 
being joined by other persons assuming the same functions^ 
it'emale whales, appearing, by their hasty and uncertain course, 
to have been wrested from their progeny, and sucklings no less 
anxiously in quest of those from whose breasts they had re-^ 
ceived their nutriment, were, by the relentless steel of the har- 
pooner, severally arrested in their pursuit. Numerous whales 
which had received their death-wound soon lined the bay,- 
while others at a greater distance were rolling about among the 
muddy and crimsoned waves, doubtful whither to flee, arid ap- 
pearing like oxen to wait the return of their slaughterer. Wan- 
ton boys and females, in their anxiety to take a share of the 
massacre, might be observed to rankle with new tortures the 
gaping wound that had been made, while, in their blood-thirsty 
exultation, they appeared to surpass those whose more imme- 
diate duty it was to expedite the direful business. At length 
the sun set upon a bay that seemed one sheet of blood: not a 
whale was allowed to escape ; and the strand was strewed over 
with carcases of all sizes, measuring from six to twenty feet, and 
amounting to not fewer than eighty in number. Several of the 
natives then went to their homes in order to obtain a short re- 
pose ; but as the twilight in this northern latitude was so bright 
as to give little or no token of the sun’s departure, many were 
unremittingly intent upon securing the profit of their labour, by 
sG'parating the blubber, which was of the thickness of three or 
four inches. It was supposed that the best of these whales 
would yield about a barrel of oil ; and it was loosely computed 
that they were on an average worth from L. 2 to L. 3 Ster- 
ling a-piece, the value of the largest being as much as L.6. 
