122 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
whale.tribe, but the most powerful of created beings^ 
which from the great danger attending the attack 
of it, the small produce of blubber, and the inferior 
quality of the laminae, roams undisturbed by the 
fishers. The length of the physalis is stated to be 
upwards of one hundred feet, and its circumference 
thirty-five feet. It derives its name from a fin upon 
its back near the tail ; its habits are unlike the 
mysticetus, for it never rests upon the surface of the 
water when it comes up to blow, but keeps moving 
with great speed and activity. Some daring fishers 
have attempted to take it with a harpoon, but the 
instant it is struck it sets off with prodigious velocity, 
soon dragging the boat through the water, beyond 
the reach of assistance and out of sight of the ship 
and boats, so that the fishers are obliged to cut the 
line for their own security. Captain Scoresby stated 
to me the following particulars of attempts which 
he had made to capture one of these formidable 
creatures. “ In the year ISIS, I ordered a general 
chase of them, providing against the danger of 
having my crew separated from the ship, by ap- 
pointing a rendezvous on the shore not far distant ; 
I prepared also against the loss of much line, by 
dividing it at two hundred fathoms from the har- 
poon, and affixing a buoy at the end of it. Thus 
arranged, one of these whales was shot and another 
struck: the former dived with such impetuosity, 
that the line was broken by the resistance of the 
buoy as soon as it was thrown into the water ; and, 
the latter was liberated in a minute, by the separa- 
