"If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would make them speak
like great wales."
GOLDSMITH
TO JOHNSON.
"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."
COOK'S VOYAGES.
"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."
UNO VON TROIL'S LETTERS ON BANKS'S AND SOLANDER'S
VOYAGE TO ICELAND IN
1772.
"The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an active, fierce animal,
and requires vast address
and boldness in the fishermen."
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S WHALE MEMORIAL TO THE FRENCH MINISTER
IN 1778.
"And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it?"
EDMUND BURKE'S REFERENCE IN PARLIAMENT TO
THE NANTUCKET WHALE-FISHERY.
"Spain- a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe."
EDMUND BURKE. (SOMEWHERE.)
"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."
BLACKSTONE.
Rodmond unerring o'er his head suspends
The barbed steel, and every turn attends."
FALCONER'S SHIPWRECK. -
"Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires,
And rockets blew self driven,
To hang their momentary fire
Around the vault of heaven. -
"So fire with water to compare,
The ocean serves on high,
Up-spouted by a whale in air,
To express unwieldy joy."
COWPER, ON THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO LONDON.
"Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke,
with immense velocity."
JOHN
HUNTER'S ACCOUNT OF THE DISSECTION OF A WHALE. (A SMALL SIZED ONE.)
"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."
PALEY'S THEOLOGY.
"The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet."
BARON CUVIER.
"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."
COLNETT'S VOYAGE FOR THE PURPOSE OF
EXTENDING THE SPERMACETI
WHALE FISHERY.
Floundered and dived, in play, in chace, in battle,
Fishes of every color, form, and kind;
Which language cannot paint, and mariner
Had never seen; from dread Leviathan
To insect millions peopling every wave:
Gather'd in shoals immense, like floating islands,
Led by mysterious instincts through that waste
And trackless region, though on every side
Assaulted by voracious enemies,
Whales, sharks, and monsters, arm'd in front or jaw,
With swords, saws, spiral horns, or hooked fangs."
MONTGOMERY'S WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD.
To the finny people's king.
Not a mightier whale than this
In the vast Atlantic is;
Not a fatter fish than he,
Flounders round the Polar Sea."
CHARLES LAMB'S TRIUMPH OF THE WHALE.
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