vernment and his paternal care to the vast ocean; adapting the various natures of the creatures, with which he has so abundantly peopled it, with consummate wisdom, to the element in which they are destined to move; providing for their reproduction, their subsistence, and their happiness, in a manner analogous to, and yet different from, that of the land tribes; and both, in their analogy and their difference, exhibiting a skill transcending all adequate expression, and filling the mind with astonishment and awe. No wonder that the Psalmist, even with his comparatively limited knowledge, should express his admiration in this glowing strain :— “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all. The earth is full of Thy riches; so is this great and wide sea, wherein are things moving innumerable, both small and great animals. There go the ships; there is that leviathan, whom Thou hast made to play therein. These all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season."

Or the migratory inhabitants of the ocean, the most remarkable is that class of which the whale is the chief. As there are animals of a low grade, which, by their structure and amphibious habits, seem intended, by the Author of Nature, to form the link between the denizens of the land and of the sea, so it has pleased Providence to place at the top of the scale of creatures whose "home is in the deep," a gigantic race, so nearly allied to the inhabitants of the land, that many naturalists have denied

* For a great part of this paper, I have to acknowledge my obligations to Dr Bushnan, the intelligent author of the "Introduction to the Study of Nature."

it the name of fish, and have bestowed on it the somewhat awkward appellation of "beast of the ocean.” Animals of this genus resemble quadrupeds, indeed, as to their structure, in many striking particulars. Like quadrupeds, they have lungs, a stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, and bladder. Like quadrupeds, too, they have a heart, with its partitions, driving warm and red blood in circulation through the body; they breathe the air; they are viviparous; and they suckle their young at the teat. Their internal parts, which bear so close a resemblance to land animals, are similarly protected from the cold, being covered, like the hog, between the skin and the muscles, with a thick coat of fat or blubber. It is this latter property which renders them valuable to man, by whom they are so pertinaciously hunted, that it is believed not one of the largest species dies a natural death in our northern seas, or arrives nearly at its natural size.

Notwithstanding their close resemblance to quadrupeds, however, in so many particulars, they are not less closely connected with the families of the sea. They are shaped as fishes; they swim with fins; they are entirely destitute of hair; they live wholly in the depths of the ocean,-qualities which, although the whale order is justly ranked by naturalists among Mammalia, have procured for them, in ordinary language, that distinctive name, by which we distinguish the finny tribes.* The various species of this animal are the whale, and its varieties, the cachalot, the dolphin, the grampus, and the porpoise.

These cetaceous animals, as they require to breathe the air, have holes at the top of their head, called spiracles, corresponding to the nostrils of land animals, which they frequently raise above the surface of the water, and through which the air finds access to the lungs. It is through these orifices that the water-spouts of the whale are ejected, accompanied with a noise, loud as a rushing

* Goldsmith's Animated Nature.

torrent, and rising sometimes to the height of forty feet. These spouts, which have occasioned much discussion, consist merely of expired air, and watery vapour, condensed by the cold of the atmosphere.

The whale is superior to all other warm-blooded animals, both from the extent of the domain, which he has held uninterrupted from the beginning of time, and from the enormous size to which he attains.* The hippopotamus, the elephant, the crocodile, are pigmies to him; and, while they cower before the blast, he plays with the storm-vexed ocean, mounts carelessly upon the giant waves, lies like a cradled creature 'mid their dark and dismal furrows, and, defying the power of the most tempestuous seas, sinks in security to the deep profound. The strength of the whale, too, is prodigious. “A large boat," says Martins, in his voyage to Spitzbergen, “he valueth no more than dust; for he can beat it to shivers at a blow." The blows of the tail of the white shark, when hauled upon the decks of a vessel, are so tremendous, as to threaten destruction to all on board; and, while in the water, the basking shark, when harpooned, has been known to tow a vessel of seventy tons burthen, at a rapid rate, against a fresh gale, for a considerable distance.

Against these mighty animals, man wages a war so exterminating, as to have driven them from their ancient haunts, to seek for safety in the more inaccessible parts of the ocean: here, however, they are followed. The object is to obtain the great quantity of oil which is found in what is called their blubber. The quantity of this oil, procured from the great northern whale, frequently amounts to one-twelfth of the weight of its enormous carcase; the tongue alone, which has been said to be "about the size of a great feather-bed," often yielding

* The whale is said to have been found, formerly, of the amazing size of 200 and even 230 feet; but it seldom is permitted, in the present day, to escape the rapacity of man, after it has attained the length of 70 or 80 feet, except in the South Seas, where it may still be occasionally taken of double

that size.

five or six barrels. Besides this mass of subcutaneous fat, many cetaceous animals, as the bottle-nosed or spermaceti whale, have a second collection of a similar substance, except that it is of a purer quality, and firmer consistence, in a large reservoir, often 16 or 18 feet long, and wide in proportion, at the top of their heads, near the spiracles or breathing-holes. This is the spermaceti of commerce.

Here we have a strong illustration of the all-provident care of the Almighty. The solid parts of the body of these animals are heavier than water; consequently, had they not been provided with a sufficient supply of some substance lighter than water, by which their tendency to sink might be counteracted, it would have required a constant effort, on their parts, to keep themselves at any given level below the water; and besides this, cetaceous animals, unlike other fishes, require frequently to be raised to the surface. It has, therefore, been wisely provided, that, while the oil of the blubber serves to render the body, collectively, lighter than the water which they inhabit, the spermaceti should render the top of the head the most buoyant part of the body; and, in this way, it is kept above the surface, without any exertion.

We are indebted to Captain Scoresby for the following interesting notices of the Greenland Whale Fisheries:

The first impulse of the whale, when harpooned, is to plunge deep beneath the waves, going at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour, and carrying the harpoon, to which a long line is attached, still fixed in the wound. The depth to which it sometimes plunges, is 800 fathoms, and the pressure there sustained would, according to this writer, be equal to 211,200 tons,—a degree of pressure, of which we have but an imperfect conception. may assist our comprehension, however, to be informed, that it exceeds in weight sixty of the largest ships of the British navy, when manned, provisioned, and fitted for a six months' cruize."

It

"No sooner does the exhausted whale appear, than the assisting boats make for the place, with the utmost speed, and, as they reach it, each harpooner plunges his harpoon into its back, to the amount of three, four, or more, according to the size of the whale, and the nature of the situation. Most frequently, it descends for a few minutes after receiving the second harpoon, and obliges the other boats to wait its return to the surface, before any farther attack can be made. It is afterwards actively plied with lances, which are thrust into its body, aiming at its vitals. At length, when exhausted by numerous wounds, and the loss of blood, which flows from the huge animal in copious streams, it indicates the approach of its dissolution, by discharging from its blow-holes a mixture of blood, along with the air and mucus which it usually breathes out, and finally, jets of blood alone. The sea, to a great extent around, is dyed with its blood, and the ice, boats, and men, are sometimes drenched with the same. Its final capture is, at times, preceded by a convulsive and energetic struggle, in which its tail, reared, whirled, and violently jerked in the air, resounds to the distance of miles."

This animal exhibits such warm affections for its mate and its young, as to excite the strongest sympathy for its fate, in the benevolent mind; and this feeling is certainly not diminished by the circumstance, that these very affections are frequently made use of, by the heartless avarice of man, to decoy it into his power. Captain Scoresby mentions, that the cub is often attacked to lure the mother, and, when this cruel plan is adopted, it generally succeeds. "In June, 1811," says he, giving an example, one of my harpooners struck a sucker, with

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the hope of its leading to the capture of its mother. Presently she arose close by the fast-boat, and, seizing the young one, dragged about 100 fathoms of line out of the boat, with remarkable force and velocity. Again she arose to the surface, darted furiously to and fro, and frequently stopped short, or suddenly changed her direc