WHALE TRIBE. 
387 
stroy the 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 upon its subja r 
cent enemy, and endeavours, not to pierce with 
its pointed beak, but to , cut with its edge,£. The 
sea all about is seen dyed with blood, proceeding 
from the wounds of the whale ; while the enormous 
animal vainly endeavours to reach its invader, and 
strikes with its tail against the surface of the water, 
making* a report at each blow louder than the 
noise of a cannon. 
4 still more fatal enemy of the whale, is an ani- 
mal of its own order, called by. « the fishermen of 
New England, the killer. Of ferocious habits, 
and furnished with strong, sharp teeth, these 
animals, when they surround a whale, seldom allow 
it to come off with life. They tear and mangle 
its flesh on ail sides, till fatigued with /fighting, 
and overcome with wounds, it falls a prey at last. to 
their fury ; and after it expires, the tongue is ex- 
tracted, the only part which they devour. 
By the constant hostilities of these various ani- 
mals, the race of whales has probably been gradu- 
ally diminish iog in number for several ages. From 
the largeness of their size they cannot easily be 
concealed from their destroyers ; and as they are 
distinguished by sterility among the finny tribes, 
their destruction cannot soon be repaired : but of 
all the causes of the waste and diminution of this 
order of fishes, the interference of man has operated 
by far the most powerfully. His hostilities have 
been incomparably more fatal than those of all the 
rest of their enemies • and a greater number is pro- 
bably destroyed in a season by the ingenuity of the 
fishermen, than is devoured by the rapacious ani- 
mals in an age. 
The inhospitable shores of Spitzbergcn were 
found to be the gre$.fc resort of the whales * ap4 
