University of Virginia Library

“And God created great whales.”

“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up
Jonah.”

“There go the ships; there is that Leviathan whom thou
hast made to play therein.”

“In that day, the Lord with his sore, and great, and strong
sword, shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even
Leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon
that is in the sea.”

“And what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos of
this monster's mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone, down it goes
all incontinently that foul great swallow of his, and perisheth in
the bottomless gulf of his paunch.”

“The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes
that are: among which the Whales and Whirlpooles called
Balæne, take up as much in length as four acres or arpens of
land.”

“Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when
about sunrise a great many Whales and other monsters of the
sea, appeared. Among the former, one was of a most monstrous
size. * * This came towards us, open-mouthed, raising the
waves on all sides, and beating the sea before him into a
foam.”

“He visited this country also with a view of catching horse-whales,
which had bones of very great value for their teeth, of
which he brought some to the king. * * * The best
whales were catched in his own country, of which some were
forty-eight, some fifty yards long. He said that he was one of
six who had killed sixty in two days.”

“And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel,
that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster's (whale's)
mouth, are immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-gudgeon
retires into it in great security, and there sleeps.”

“Let us fly, let us fly! Old Nick take me if it is not
Leviathan described by the noble prophet Moses in the life of
patient Job.”

“This whale's liver was two cart-loads.”

“The great Leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like
boiling pan.”

“Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we have
received nothing certain. They grow exceeding fat, insomuch
that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted out of one
whale.”

“The sovereignest thing or earth is parmacetti for an inward
bruise.”

“Very like a whale.”

“Immense as whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can
in a peaceful calm trouble the ocean till it boil.”

“What spermacetti is, men might justly doubt, since the
learned Hosmannus in his work of thirty years, saith plainly,
Nescio quid sit.”

“By art is created that great Leviathan, called a Commonwealth
or State—(in Latin, Civitas) which is but an artificial
man.”

“Silly Mansoul swallowed it without chewing, as if it had
been a sprat in the mouth of a whale.”

“The mighty whales which swim in a sea of water, and
have a sea of oil swimming in them.”

“While the whale is floating at the stern of the ship, they
cut off his head, and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it
will come; but it will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet
water.”

“In their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean,
and in wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes and
vents, which nature has placed on their shoulders.”

“Here they saw such huge troops of whales, that they were
forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they
should run their ship upon them.”

“We set sail from the Elbe, wind N. E. in the ship called
The Jonas-in-the-Whale. * * *

Some say the whale can't open his mouth, but that is a
fable. * * *

They frequently climb up the masts to see whether they can
see a whale, for the first discoverer has a ducat for his pains.***

I was told of a whale taken near Shetland, that had above a
barrel of herrings in his belly. * * *

One of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale
in Spitzbergen that was white all over.”

“Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife).
Anno 1652, one eighty feet in length of the whale-bone kind
came in, which, (as I was informed) besides a vast quantity of
oil, did afford 500 weight of baleen. The jaws of it stand for a
gate in the garden of Pitferren.”

“Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill
this Sperma-ceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that
sort that was killed by any man, such is his fierceness and
swiftness.”

“We saw also abundance of large whales, there being more
in those southern seas, as I may say, by a hundred to one;
than we have to the northward of us.”

* * * * * “and the breath of the whale is frequently
attended with such an insupportable smell, as to bring on a
disorder of the brain.”

“If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with
those that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they
will appear contemptible in the comparison. The whale is
doubtless the largest animal in creation.”

“If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would make
them speak like great whales.”

“In the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock,
but it was found to be a dead whale, which some Asiatics had
killed, and were then towing ashore. They seemed to endeavor
to conceal themselves behind the whale, in order to avoid being
seen by us.”

“The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They
stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at sea
they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry dung,
lime-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of the same
nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent their too
near approach.”

“The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an
active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and boldness in
the fishermen.”

“And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it?”

“Spain—a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe.”

“A tenth branch of the king's ordinary revenue, said to be
grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting
the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish,
which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when either thrown
ashore or caught near the coast, are the property of the king.”

“Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart
at a stroke, with immense velocity.”

“The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main
pipe of the water-works at London Bridge, and the water roaring
in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus and
velocity to the blood gushing from the whale's heart.”

“The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet.”

“In 40 degrees south, we saw Spermacetti Whales, but did
not take any till the first of May, the sea being then covered
with them.”

“In the year 1690 some persons were on a high hill observing
the whales spouting and sporting with each other, when
one observed; there—pointing to the sea—is a green pasture
where our children's grand-children will go for bread.”

“I built a cottage for Susan and myself and made a gateway
in the form of a Gothie Arch, by setting up a whale's jaw
bones.”

“She came to bespeak a monument for her first love, who
had been killed by a whale in the Pacific ocean, no less than
forty years ago.”

“No, Sir, 'tis a Right Whale,” answered Tom; “I saw his
spout; he threw up a pair of as pretty rainbows as a Christian
would wish to look at. He's a raal oil-butt, that fellow!”

“The papers were brought in, and we saw in the Berlin
Gazette that whales had been introduced on the stage there.”

“My God! Mr. Chace, what is the matter?” I answered, “we
have been stove by a whale.”

“The quantity of line withdrawn from the different boats
engaged in the capture of this one whale, amounted altogether
to 10,440 yards or nearly six English miles.”

“Sometimes the whale shakes its tremendous tail in the air,
which, cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of three
or four miles.”

“Mad with the agonies he endures from these fresh attacks,
the infuriated Sperm Whale rolls over and over; he rears his
enormous head, and with wide expanded jaws snaps at everything
around him; he rushes at the boats with his head; they
are propelled before him with vast swiftness, and sometimes
utterly destroyed.

It is a matter of great astonishment that the consideration
of the habits of so interesting, and, in a commercial

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“The Cachalot” (Sperm Whale) “is not only better armed
than the True Whale” (Greenland or Right Whale) “in possessing
a formidable weapon at either extremity of its body, but
also more frequently displays a disposition to employ these
weapons offensively, and in a manner at once so artful, bold,
and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the most
dangerous to attack of all the known species of the whale tribe.”

October 13. “There she blows,” was sung out from the
mast-head.

“Where away?” demanded the captain.

“Three points off the lee bow, sir.”

“Raise up your wheel. Steady!”

“Steady, sir.”

“Mast-head ahoy! Do you see that whale now?”

“Ay ay, sir! A shoal of Sperm Whales! There she blows!
There she breaches!”

“Sing out! sing out every time!”

“Ay ay, sir! There she blows! there—there—thar she
blows—bowes—bo-o-o-s!”

“How far off?”

“Two miles and a half.”

“Thunder and lightning! so near! Call all hands!”

“The Whale-ship Globe, on board of which vessel occurred
the horrid transactions we are about to relate, belonged to the
island of Nantucket.”

“Being once pursued by a whale which he had wounded, he
parried the assault for some time with a lance; but the furious
monster at length rushed on the boat; himself and comrades
only being preserved by leaping into the water when they saw
the onset was inevitable.”

“Nantucket itself,” said Mr. Webster, “is a very striking and
peculiar portion of the National interest. There is a population
of eight or nine thousand persons, living here in the sea, adding
largely every year to the National wealth by the boldest and
most persevering industry.”

“The whale fell directly over him, and probably killed him
in a moment.”

“If you make the least damn bit of noise,” replied Samuel,
“I will send you to hell.”

“The voyages of the Dutch and English to the Northern
Ocean, in order, if possible, to discover a passage through it to
India, though they failed of their main object, laid open the
haunts of the whale.”

“These things are reciprocal; the ball rebounds, only to
bound forward again; for now in laying open the haunts of
the whale, the whalemen seem to have indirectly hit upon new
clews to that same mystic North-West Passage.”

“It is impossible to meet a whale-ship on the ocean without
being struck by her near appearance. The vessel under short
sail, with look-outs at the mast-heads, eagerly scanning the
wide expanse around them, has a totally different air from
those engaged in a regular voyage.”

“Pedestrians in the vicinity of London and elsewhere may
recollect having seen large curved bones set upright in the earth,
either to form arches over gateways, or entrances to alcoves,
and they may perhaps have been told that these were the ribs
of whales.”

“It was not till the boats returned from the pursuit of these
whales, that the whites saw their ship in bloody possession of
the savages enrolled among the crew.”

“It is generally well known that out of the crews of Whaling
vessels (American) few ever return in the ships on board of
which they departed.”

“Suddenly a mighty mass emerged from the water, and shot
up perpendicularly into the air. It was the whale.”

“The Whale is harpooned to be sure; but bethink you, how
you would manage a powerful unbroken colt, with the mere
appliance of a rope tied to the root of his tail.”

“On one occasion I saw two of these monsters (whales) probably
male and female, slowly swimming, one after the other,
within less than a stone's throw of the shore” (Terra Del Fuego),
“over which the beech tree extended its branches.”

“`Stern all!' exclaimed the mate, as upon turning his head,
he saw the distended jaws of a large Sperm Whale close to the

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