manner, leaping from the water as if with 
affright : wherever it appears, the whale per- 
ceives it at a ditsanee, and flies from it in 
the opposite direction. The whale has no 
instrument of defence except the tail ; with 
that it endeavours to strike the enemy ; 
and a single blow taking place would ef- 
fectually destroy its adversary : but the 
sword-fish is as active as the other is strong, 
and easily avoids the stroke ; then bounding 
into the air, it falls apon its enemy, and en- 
deavours not to pierce with its pointed 
beak, but to cut with its toothed edges. 
The sea all about is soon dyed with blood, 
proceeding from the wounds of the whale ; 
while the enormous animal vainly endea- 
vours to reach its invader, and strikes 
W’ith its tail against the surface of the wa- 
ter, making a report at each blow louder 
than the noise of a canon. There is still 
another powerful enemy to this fish, which 
is called the oria or killer. A number of 
these are said to surround the whale in the 
same manner as dogs get round a bull. Some 
attack it with tlieir teeth behind'; others 
attempt it before : until, at last, the great 
animal is torn down, and its tongue is said 
to be the only part they devour when they 
have made it their prey. But of all the 
enemies of these enormous fishes, man is 
the greatest ; he alone destroys more in a 
year than the rest in an age, and actually 
has thinned their numbers in that part of 
the world where they are chiefly sought. 
At the first discovery of Greenland, whales 
not being used to be disturbed frequently, 
came into the veiy bays, and were accor- 
dingly killed almost close to the shore ; so 
that tire blubber being cut off, was imme- 
diately boiled into oil on the spot. The 
ships, in those times, took in nothing but 
the pure oil and the whalebone, and all the 
business was executed in the country ; by 
which means a ship could bring home the 
product of many more whales than she. 
can according the present method of con- 
ducting this trade. The fishing also was 
then so plentiful, that they were obliged 
sometimes to send other ships to fetch off 
the oil they had made, the quantity being 
more than the fishing ships could bring 
away. But time and change of circum- 
stances have shifted the situation of this 
trade. The ships coming in such numbers 
from Holland, Denmark, Hamburgh, and 
pther northern countries, all intruders upon 
the English, who were the first discoverers 
of Greenland, the whales were disturbed ; 
and gradually, as other fish often do, for- 
saking the place, were not to be killed so 
near the shore as before ; but are now 
found, and have been so ever , since, in the 
openings and space among the ice, where 
they have deep water, and where they go 
sometimes a great many leagues from the 
shore. The whale-fishery begins in May, 
and continues all June and July ; but whe- 
ther the ships have good or bad success, 
they must come away, and get clear of the 
ice, by the end of August ; so that in the 
month of September at farthest they may 
be expected home ; but a ship that meets 
with a fortunate and early fishery in May, 
may return in June or July. See Plate 
I. Pisces, fig. 5. Whale Fishery. 
BALE, in commerce, is said of merchan- 
dizes packed up in cloth, and corded round 
very tight, in order to keep them from 
breaking, or preserve them from the wea- 
ther. Most of the merchandize capable of 
this kind of package, designed for fairs or 
exportation, ought to be in bales, and too 
much "are cannot be taken in packing 
them, to prevent their being damaged. The 
bales are always to he marked and num- 
bered, that the merchants to whom they 
belong, may easily know them. 
Bale goods, among the English mer- 
chants, are all such as are imported or ex- 
ported in baies ; but the French give that 
name to certain hardwares, and other sort 
of merchandise, which come to Paris, and 
are commonly made by bad workmen, of 
indifferent materials. 
B ALISTES, in natural history, a genus of 
fishes of the order Cartilagenei. The gene- 
ric characters are: teeth several in both 
jaws ; body compressed ; abdomen carinat- 
ed ; skin tough, often reticulated by scale- 
like divisions. There are 24 species: of 
which we shall mention the following, viz. 
the B. moneceros, or unicorn file-fish, which 
is often two feet long or more ; the body is 
of an oval shape, and possesses the power of 
inflating at pleasure the sides of the abdo- 
men, by means of a pair of bony processes 
within that part; the skin is every where 
covered with minute spines, and the general 
colour is grey, inclining to brown on the up- 
per parts, and varied with irregular, dusky, 
sub transverse, undulations and spots: imme- 
diately over the head just above they eyes, 
is a strong, single, recurved spine, of consi- 
derable length, and serrated on the hind 
part : both fins and tail are of a pale brown 
colour, the latter being marked by a few 
dusky bars. This fish is a native of the In- 
dian and American seas, feeding chiefly op 
