PltESSUItE SUSTAINED J1Y THE WHALE. l‘J5 
“ created great whales, and every living creature 
that moveth,” to be subject to man ; and, there¬ 
fore, when attacked by him, it perishes by its 
simplicity. Instead of repelling his attacks, it 
generally dives at once to an immense depth, 
where, under a pressure often exceeding 200,000 
tons * upon its body, it becomes so exhausted, 
that, on its return to the surface of the sea, it be¬ 
comes an easy prey. 
The conduct of the whale, in this respect, in¬ 
timates, that the instinctive faculty generally pos¬ 
sessed by the lower animals, and employed for the 
purpose of self-preservation, directs it to descend 
to the depths of the ocean for escaping its natu¬ 
ral enemies in the same clement; and it farther 
intimates, that, whatever these enemies may con¬ 
sist of, whether sword-fish, thrashers, or sharks, 
since it avoids them by this means, it must- be 
able to descend lower, and to sustain a greater 
degree of pressure from the superincumbent wa- 
* It may assist our comprehension of the enormous 
load that the whale endures, when it descends to the depth 
of 800 fathoms, which it is often known to do, to be in¬ 
formed, that the pressure of the water at this depth, on the 
body of a whale, must sometimes exceed the weight of sixty 
of the largest ships of the British navy, when manned, pro¬ 
visioned, and fitted for a six months’ cruise !—(Acconnt of 
the Arct. Reg., vol. ii. p. 250.) 
