46 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAI^D. 
and elevating its extensive tail, with a graceful 
curvature of movement, sunk into the deep. 
It may here be proper to observe, that, from the 
improbability of seeing a whale, in a situation with- 
out either favourable water or ice, and from the 
sportive manner of its retiring, the experienced on 
board inferred that it had a young one with it ; for 
whales often retire to some situation, unfrequented 
by other whales, for the purpose of giving early ex- 
ercise to their young. In a short time the whale 
rose again, when a hand-harpoon was thrown at it 
as it was descending, but without effect ; and here 
the advantage of a gun-harpoon was self-evident, 
as the distance was certainly not a boat’s length. 
Boats now were disposed in various stations, ready 
again to assail it on its re-ascent to breathe, but 
probably the harpoon having touched it, it became 
alarmed, as it was seen no more. The boat appro- 
priated to carry my gun did not go ; the harpooner 
appointed to it being by illness confined to his birth. 
It was now discovered, that the opinion of the ex- 
perienced was correct, and that the whale we had 
seen was attending on its offspring, or instructing it 
to provide for itself, by collecting sustenance, and 
by swimming for protection to situations among ice, 
