VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
47 
where man could least annoy it. But probably, 
having lost its aflFectionate tutor, in consequence of 
the alarm given to it by the harpooner, or not being 
sufficiently instructed in the laws of self-preserva- 
tion, the young fish, as with no consciousness of 
danger in its unoflending nature, rose near a boat, 
the harpooner of which knew no distinction or merit 
in a whale beyond the quantity of oil it would 
yield ; he immediately plunged his weapon into the 
back, and with the assistance of others, soon killed 
it, and brought it to the ship. Captain Scoresby 
taking an earnest interest in subjects relating to 
natural history, ordered it to be hoisted up, and 
laid upon the deck, that its structure might be the 
more minutely examined. It measured nineteen 
feet in length, and fourteen feet five inches in cir- 
cumference ; the longest laminae of whalebone were 
twelve inches. The general appearance of the 
animal was particularly uncouth, and I was much 
amazed at the extreme disproportion of those dif- 
ferent organs, the head, the eye, and the ear. 
Being the common Greenland whale, a description 
of its peculiarities, as well as some account of the 
early state of the fishing, may not be unacceptable. 
