134 
<JKEENLAND VOYAGE. 
approached within a ship’s length, took the alarm. 
The boats having been recalled by signal, two 
were sent, as a last effort, into a promising situa¬ 
tion, on the borders of a floe, where they had not 
remained long, before a large whale arose near 
one of them, and received a harpoon. It re¬ 
mained nearly an hour invisible, and then arose 
exhausted to the surface, close to the place where 
the ship was made fast to the ice. A second 
harpoon was immediately fastened, and it was so 
promptly plied with lances, that it had not power 
to descend afterwards, but died in a few minutes, 
within fifty yards of the ship, The extraordinary 
exhaustion of this whale, was owing to the long 
time it remained under water, and the depth to 
which it descended. Most other animals, when 
attacked, instinctively pursue a conduct which is 
generally the best calculated to secure their escape; 
but not so the whale. Were it to remain on the 
surface after being harpooned,—to press steadily 
forward in one direction,—and to exert the won¬ 
derful strength that it possesses; or were it to 
await the attacks of its enemies, and repel them by 
well-timed flourishes of its tremendous tail, it 
would often victoriously dispute the fieldwith man, 
whose strengtli and bidk scarcely exceeds a nine¬ 
hundredth part of its own. But, like the rest of 
the lower animals, it was designed by Him who 
