REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
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he his seeking to rid himself of his enemies by descending deeply into the dark and unknown 
depths of the ocean. They next bend on the ‘ drouges,’ to retard his career—but he does not 
turn; another and another have but slight influence in checking the force of his descent; two 
more lines are exhausted—he is six hundred fathoms deep ! k Stand ready to bend on,’ cries the 
mate to the fourth boat (for sometimes, though not often, they take the whole four lines away 
with them—800 fathoms !!); but it is not required, he is rising. 4 Haul in the slack,’ observes the 
headsman, while the boat-steerer coils it again carefully into the tubs as it is drawn up. The 
Whale is now seen approaching the surface ; the gurgling and bubbling water which rises before 
also proclaim that he is near; his nose starts from the sea; the rushing spout is projected high and 
suddenly, from his agitation. The ‘ slack’ of the line is now coiled in the tubs, and those in the 
‘ fast’ boat haul themselves gently towards the Whale; the boat-steerer places the headsman 
close to the tin of the trembling animal, who immediately buries his long lance in the vitals of 
the Leviathan, while, at the same moment, those in the other boats dart another harpoon into his 
opposite side, when 4 stern all’ is again vociferated, and the boats shoot rapidly away from the 
danger. 
“ Mad with the agony which he endures from these fresh attacks, the infuriated ‘ sea beast’ rolls 
over and over, and coils an amazing length of line around him; he rears his enormous head, and 
with wide-expanded jaw, snaps at every thing around; he rushes at the boats with his head—they 
are propelled before him with vast swiftness, and sometimes utterly destroyed. 
“ He is lanced again, when his pain appears more than he can hear; he throws himself, in his 
agony, completely out of his element; the boats are violently jerked, by which one of the lines is 
snapped asunder; at the same time the other boat is upset, and its crew are swimming for their 
lives. The Whale is now free! he passes along the surface with remarkable swiftness, 4 going 
head outbut the two boats that have not yet 4 fastened,’ and are fresh and free, now give chase; 
the Whale becomes exhausted, from the blood which flows from his deep and dangerous wounds, 
and the 200 fathoms of line belonging to the overturned boat, which he is dragging after him 
through the water, checks him in his course; his pursuers again overtake him, and another harpoon, 
is darted and buried deeply in his flesh. 
“ The men who were upset, now right their own boat without assistance from the others, by 
merely clinging on one side of her, by which she is turned over, while one of them gets inside and 
hales out the water rapidly with his hat, by which the boat is freed, and she is soon again seen in 
the chase. 
“ The fatal lance is at length given,—the blood gushes from the nostrils of the unfortunate 
animal in a thick black stream, which stains the clear blue water of the ocean to a considerable 
distance around the scene of the affray. In its struggles the blood from the nostrils is frequently 
thrown upon the men in the boats, who glory in its show. 
“ The immense creature may now again endeavour to 4 sound’ to escape from his unrelenting 
pursuers ; hut it is powerless,—it soon rises to the surface, and passes slowly along until the death 
pang seizes it, when its appearance is awful in the extreme. 
“ Suffering from suffocation, or the stoppage of some important organ, the whole strength 
of its enormous frame is set in motion for a few seconds, when his convulsions throw him into a 
hundred different contortions of the most violent description, by which the sea is beaten into foam, 
and boats are sometimes crushed to atoms, with their crews. 
“ But this violent action being soon over, the now unconscious animal passes rapidly along, 
describing in his rapid course a segment of a circle; this is his 4 flurry,’ which ends in his sudden 
dissolution. And the mighty rencontre is finished by the gigantic animal rolling over on its side, 
and floating an inanimate mass on the surface of the crystal deep,—a victim to the tyranny and 
selfishness, as well as a wonderful proof of the great power of the mind , of Man.”—p. 167. 
Subsequently a gloom was cast on the minds of our voyagers by one of the men 
