70 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND, 
was presented to our view this “ great Leviathan of 
old,” incessantly rising to blow, and at times rearing 
itself in the air, in all the attitudes characteristic of 
rage, displaying to man that, were it sensible of its 
power and strength, the destruction of those who 
dared to approach it could not fail to be inevitable. 
At one instant, its immense head was greatly ele- 
vated, and a cloud of fume issued from its organs 
of respiration; it then raised its mountain-back, 
bristling with the goading harpoon, which it en- 
deavoured to displace by various contortions of its 
body ; finally throwing itself into a perpendicular 
posture, with its head downward, and its monstrous 
tail lifted to a surprising height, it made the lobes 
crack by the effort with which they were whirled 
in every direction, and dashed them upon the sur- 
face with a violence, that could not have failed to 
annihilate whatever had opposed its force. 
